In January 2021, the Government announced they are investing £213 million into UK science, under their flagship Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap, which aims to make the UK the best place globally for scientists and researchers to live and work.
This shared funding will upgrade the UK’s scientific infrastructure, enabling researchers in science facilities to respond to worldwide challenges such as Covid-19 and climate change.
Leading scientists, research institutes, and universities are among those that will benefit from £27 million (from the £213 million funding) to upgrade or purchase brand-new vital supplies, to drive outstanding research.
Which cities and institutes will receive the funding?
The Capability for Collections Fund (CapCo) will benefit from £15 million to renew struggling research institutions across the UK, including those within archives, galleries, libraries and museums. This funding aims to conserve the UK’s heritage whilst modernising these spaces for local communities and generations.
Medical Research Centres based in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow will share £2.8 million worth of the funding to purchase advanced specialist equipment and technology to support Covid-19, human genomics, long-term programmes in cell biology and more extensive virology research.
With this funding, researchers will be a step further in detecting and modelling diseases in more detail than before, contributing to the UK’s response to the current and future pandemics, plus cancer, dementia and other global diseases.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) will receive £30 million worth of funding in total. £20 million to improve campus infrastructure at its sites in Edinburgh, Liverpool City Region, North Yorkshire and Oxford, enabling further development of flagships projects, such as pre-launch satellite testing to search for dark matter.
They will receive £10 million to upgrade laboratories which support scientific activity across Edinburgh, Liverpool, North Yorkshire and Oxford, including projects in artificial intelligence, pre-launch satellite testing and quantum physics.
The University of Essex will also get support for its wide-scale survey, to discover how covid-19 has affected family relationships and home-schooling.
Additionally, £34 million will go towards developing the UK’s digital research capabilities, plus £1 million for new hardware in urban data centres in Glasgow, Liverpool and Oxford.
The Government hopes that this funding will maintain UK scientists, whilst attracting other international talents.
Amanda Solloway, the UK’s Science Minister, states that
The response from UK scientists and researchers to Coronavirus has been nothing short of phenomenal.
We need to match this excellence by ensuring scientific facilities are truly world-class, so scientists can continue carrying out life-changing research for years to come.
If you are conducting innovative projects related to science or technology within your company, you could benefit from R&D tax credits. To find out more, book a demo with our team now.
