In our response to the BEIS R & D Roadmap Survey, we argue that currently research funding is concentrated mostly in a handful of institutions, within select regions. We point out that investing in R & D would help to lessen the social and economic impact of Covid-19 outside London and the widening inequality that this causes. Indeed, supporting innovation and research is key to the long term recovery and growth of the UK. As part of this investment, we would like to see more support given to smaller and specialist institutions in different regions and to the multiple areas that they undertake research in, such as agriculture, sports and exercise science and the arts.

We also emphasise the need for a diverse group of researchers in order to succeed (one way of doing this is by supporting part-time doctoral students). Political funding and support is now needed to support this diversity. We would like to see government work with organisations such as ourselves and other sector bodies in order to achieve its vision for R & D in the UK.

Please find our response in full here.