Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Our CEO, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, explains how UKRI’s budget will transition over the next four years.
The growth in our budget is a vote of confidence from the government and we have to make the most of the opportunities it provides. By the end of 2030, UKRI will be investing about £10 billion per year into research and innovation.
We need to do fewer things, but do them as well as we possibly can. Our new mission includes three equally important strands - to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth.
Our budget is organised into three priority ‘buckets’ – curiosity-driven research, societal priorities, and driving growth. Most of our interventions will have a role to play in all three of these areas, but to keep things simple we’ve chosen to put our funding schemes in the bucket where they make the biggest impact.
We’ll also be putting budgets together based on the outcomes we’re trying to achieve, rather than splitting them by discipline. This will speed up decision-making and reduce the risk of duplicative work. Curiosity-driven research is protected in scale and in scope, and we will invest in the best ideas in any area.
The changes are substantial, but offer significant opportunities. We will care even more about the outcomes we deliver, and we will work with you to maximise the returns from our investment to improve people’s lives and livelihoods.
We’ve developed a Sankey graphic which shows how the new buckets will work: ukri.org/publications/schematic-mapping-ukris-previous-funding-lines-to-our-new-model
We are UK Research and Innovation, the UK's largest public funder of research and innovation. If you're a UK tax payer, your contributions help fund the work we showcase on our channel. And if you liked this video, follow us on these channels:
Medium: medium.com/@UKRI
Instagram: instagram.com/weareukri
Facebook: facebook.com/weareUKRI
YouTube: youtube.com/c/UKResearchandInnovation
Or sign up for our weekly newsletter public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKRI/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKRI_newsletter
Our CEO, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, explains how UKRI’s budget will transition over the next four years.
The growth in our budget is a vote of confidence from the government and we have to make the most of the opportunities it provides. By the end of 2030, UKRI will be investing about £10 billion per year into research and innovation.
We need to do fewer things, but do them as well as we possibly can. Our new mission includes three equally important strands - to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth.
Our budget is organised into three priority ‘buckets’ – curiosity-driven research, societal priorities, and driving growth. Most of our interventions will have a role to play in all three of these areas, but to keep things simple we’ve chosen to put our funding schemes in the bucket where they make the biggest impact.
We’ll also be putting budgets together based on the outcomes we’re trying to achieve, rather than splitting them by discipline. This will speed up decision-making and reduce the risk of duplicative work. Curiosity-driven research is protected in scale and in scope, and we will invest in the best ideas in any area.
The changes are substantial, but offer significant opportunities. We will care even more about the outcomes we deliver, and we will work with you to maximise the returns from our investment to improve people’s lives and livelihoods.
We’ve developed a Sankey graphic which shows how the new buckets will work: ukri.org/publications/schematic-mapping-ukris-previous-funding-lines-to-our-new-model
We are UK Research and Innovation, the UK's largest public funder of research and innovation. If you're a UK tax payer, your contributions help fund the work we showcase on our channel. And if you liked this video, follow us on these channels:
Medium: medium.com/@UKRI
Instagram: instagram.com/weareukri
Facebook: facebook.com/weareUKRI
YouTube: youtube.com/c/UKResearchandInnovation
Or sign up for our weekly newsletter public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKRI/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKRI_newsletter
