As a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) budget is determined by:
- the overall funding allocated to DSIT for research and development at spending review and budgets
- subsequent decisions by the Secretary of State as to how that funding should be allocated to UKRI and other partner bodies.
To find out how UKRI gets its funding, and how we allocate that funding to make the most effective impacts for society and the economy, read the first in our new series of explainers about UKRI. This edition explains the systems and processes behind UKRI’s budget.
The DSIT Secretary of State decides on UKRI’s overall allocation and, within that, allocations to councils, key programmes and the balance of dual support. UKRI has a responsibility to provide advice to the DSIT Secretary of State on the allocation of research and innovation funding to inform these decisions. This is set out in the Higher Education and Research Act and UKRI framework agreement (PDF, 752KB).
We have published a map which sets out the process of allocating UKRI’s budget following each spending review announcement. This map follows the two separate, but interlinked, threads of the process:
- the DSIT allocation process, which determines UKRI’s overall organisational budgets
- the UKRI allocation process, which determines how best we achieve our strategic objectives through the allocation of our budget across the organisation and into the research and innovation system.
Our allocations are guided by our organisational objectives set out in the UKRI strategy, and inform delivery planning across UKRI.
DSIT published their research and development allocations which outline how they will allocate their research and development budget for the three financial years 2022 to 2023, 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025, including UKRI’s allocation. In addition, we have published a detailed breakdown of UKRI’s budget allocation.
Previous year’s budget explainers
Last updated: 20 September 2024