Search budgets did not keep up with inflation in the United Kingdom.Credit
The percentage of research and innovation awards granted by the United Kingdom’s research and innovation, UKRI, the National Finance Agency in the United Kingdom, has decreased to almost half during the past seven financial years, as demand rates have increased by more than 80 %.
Ukry data, Posted last monthIt was showed that between 2017-18 and 2024-25, the number of requests to the National Finance Agency increased from 16355 to 29,927. Meanwhile, the number of prizes granted annually increased by only 3 % during the same period, to 5667 in 2024-25 (see “decrease in revenue”). A great stumbling block was seen in the applications in 2020-21, the first year of the Covid-19s, and a similar, but smaller stumbling block was seen in the awards, which settled during the following years.
The increase in applications is mostly due to UK innovation applications-which support industry-based research and now constitute more than 56 % of estimated applications. The award rate of these requests was 14 % in 2024-25.
As for the academic scholarships and research led by research from Ukra, requests and award rates differ between research councils-the subjects of the subject that allocate financing in areas such as engineering, medical research and social sciences-but many of them have witnessed a decrease in award rates during the past fiscal year. In general, the award rate granted annually – including research, innovation, fellowships and training grants – decreased from 36 % in the period 2017-18 to 19 % in 2024-25, the lowest level in the contract. The total number of active prizes has remained somewhat stable, and it is now about 21,000.
Progress price
Despite the recession in the number of prizes, the value of Ukry’s grants steadily increased from about 3 billion pounds (4 billion US dollars) to more than 6 billion pounds between 2015-16 and 2023-24, before declining to 4.5 billion pounds in this fiscal year.
Over the past few years, laboratories and universities have been calculated with the consequences of large inflation. In October 2022, the UK consumer index reached 11.1 %, the highest level in 41 years. According to Ukry data, over the past three years, the average amount granted for successful application exceeded 800,000 pounds. In 2015-16, the average value of the grant was more than 450,000 pounds.
Elianor Riley, the immunity scientist at Edinburgh University and a member of the Medical Research Council in Ukry (who spoke with nature As a personality), he says that research budgets barely keep up with inflation. She adds that the lack of investment from the country’s government is often responsible. Analysis of research and development, published this year by the Science and Engineering campaign, A group of supporters in London showed that government spending in real terms – when modified for inflation – was classified in 2019 due to high inflation.
The activities of other financiers, including research institutes that are taken from the United States affected by financing discounts from President Donald Trump’s administration, may also affect the volume of demand in Ukry, where more researchers in the United States are looking for outside the country to secure financing.
Administration management
In 2022, Technopolis Group – an international research and consulting organization – I published a review of Ukra To a great stumbling block in applications and time schedules for rapid review in the Covid-19s. During this period, Ukraine employees faced widespread revenue, according to the report, and he faced more than a third of the delay prizes while waiting for a decision.
A number of Ukrai councils have adopted the demand management policies to reduce pressure on peer review systems while increasing applications. In 2015, the NARC Research Council (NERC) has implemented the application management policy that limits the number of requests from individual institutions on the basis of the success rate: those who have a low success rate have been exposed to the maximum number of requests they can submit. Although this is not the only way to reduce pressure on peer review and grants, it tends to lead to more exciting applications, Riley says. She says other councils can follow their example.