Science - USA (2020-03-20)

SCIENCE 20 MARCH 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6484^1291

DATA: U.K. GOVERNMENT

F

or scientists in the United Kingdom,

the country’s departure from the

European Union threatens a major

source of grants and collaboration.

But now they have been promised

help: an unprecedented boost in do-

mestic research funding. Last week, in its

budget announcement, the U.K. govern-

ment said it would increase public R&D by

15% to £13 billion in the fiscal year begin-

ning next month—with even bigger raises

to come. “This really is a blockbuster of a

budget,” says Graeme Reid, a science policy

researcher at University College London.

“It will change both the shape and the scale

of research and innovation in the U.K.”

Scientists can thank Brexit, which oc-

curred on 31 January. Prime Minister Boris

Johnson and his advisers see science as an

engine of innovation for the post-Brexit

economy. To that end, the new budget in-

cludes £800 million to set up a funding

agency modeled on the storied U.S. Ad-

vanced Research Projects Agency, which

spawned economically important inven-

tions such as the internet. The budget also

includes £400 million this year for parts of

the country that have lagged in capturing

research grants, a start to spreading money

beyond the “golden triangle” of London,

Oxford, and Cambridge. “To me these

are quite bold things to try,” says John

Womersley, director-general of the Euro-

pean Spallation Source and former head of

a U.K. research funding council.

U.K. researchers get a lot of bang for

the buck or, rather, power for the pound.

Their research is cited more often than

that of most of their international peers,

even though total R&D spending, public

and private, stands at about 1.7% of gross

domestic product (GDP)—well below the

2.4% average of economically developed

countries. Last year, Johnson and the Con-

servative Party campaigned on a pledge

to reach that average by 2027 and double

the public share of R&D funding by 2024.

Presenting the new budget outline, finance

minister Rishi Sunak said the government

would meet that second goal in 2024, with

public R&D spending hitting £22 billion, or

0.8% of GDP—more, relative to GDP, than

in the United States, Japan, and France.

To reach the overall goal of 2.4%, how-

ever, the private sector needs to increase

its R&D spending from £26 billion to

£44 billion, despite the economic risks

posed by Brexit and now the coronavirus

pandemic. To stimulate private investment,

the government will put £200 million in a

life sciences venture capital fund and spend

£900 million on grants to foster business

innovation. It is also trying to strengthen

connections between academic and in-

dustrial researchers, which will require

creativity, says Ottoline Leyser, a plant bio-

logist at the University of Cambridge and

a member of the prime minister’s Council

for Science and Technology. “You can’t just

throw more money,” she says.

By supporting unconventional ideas

with distant commercial payoffs, the new

agency—modeled on the civilian precur-

sor to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research

Projects Agency—could also help. Estab-

lishing it with a large pot of money is

good, Womersley says, because a high-risk

funding agency needs to invest in the long-

term and shrug off the inevitable failures.

The budget announcement did not reveal

when the agency might launch or whether

it will be part of UK Research and Innova-

tion (UKRI), the overarching government

funding council created in 2018 to coor-

dinate U.K. research funding. The agency

will need leaders who understand the U.K.

research landscape, says Anne Glover, a

molecular biologist and president of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s na-

tional academy. “If it’s just something like

a hobby for politicians, then this is not go-

ing to work.”

A more immediate windfall is the extra

£400 million to be spent this year on re-

search infrastructure in regions outside

the golden triangle, concentrating on ba-

sic research and the physical sciences. The

budget provides enough funding to sup-

port policy experiments, such as giving

block grants to local authorities or creating

a regional structure for UKRI, says policy

analyst Madeleine Gabriel of Nesta, a foun-

dation that studies innovation. “We’re only

going to build capacity outside the golden

triangle by doing something bold to shift

the distribution of funding.”

The budget includes another big infra-

structure project, a 10-year, £1.4 billion

renovation of an animal and plant health

research facility in Weybridge. Its focus

is protecting U.K. agriculture, but it also

studies zoonotic diseases that—like the

new coronavirus—spread from animals to

humans. James Wilsdon, a science policy

expert at the University of Sheffield, says

it makes sense to spend money on infra-

structure now, to prepare facilities for the

ramp-up in research spending.

To effectively absorb more research

funding, Womersley says the United King-

dom will need to attract and retain more

postdocs and other talent from abroad.

The U.K. Home Office in February an-

nounced a global talent visa as part of

changes to immigration policy. But Brexit

has caused lasting reputational damage

that may make it harder to recruit from

other countries, Glover says. “You can de-

stroy a welcoming environment in an in-

stant and it takes a long time to recover,”

she says. Reid, on the other hand, is op-

timistic about the potential for collabora-

tions, despite Brexit. “You’re looking at a

country with a strong research base that’s

just received an unprecedented funding

boost. And that makes the U.K. an extraor-

dinary partner of choice.” j

After Brexit, U.K. budget offers boost to science

Unprecedented increase includes money to set up high-risk research agency

SCIENCE POLICY

By Erik Stokstad

A post-Brexit bounty

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to double

public R&D spending by 2024. The budget overview,

announced this week, highlights science projects

of different size and duration.

FUNDING

(MILLIONS £)

TIME

(YEARS) PURPOSE

1400 10 Upgrade government’s animal

health science facility

900? Business innovation, including

space and nuclear fusion

technology

80? High-risk, high-reward funding

agency modeled on ARPA

400 1 Research and infrastructure,

particularly in basic and

physical sciences

300 5 Math research fellowships to

attract global talent

200? Health and life science venture

capital fund

180 6 New storage and research

facility for the Natural

History Museum

80 5 Specialist institutions including

the Institute of Cancer Research