GuildHE has joined over 40 leading organisations in the R&D sector urging the UK Government to protect R&D funds in the upcoming autumn budget and consider the vital role R&D will play in the Government’s long-term plans to grow the economy, increasing jobs and productivity. 

Co-ordinated by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), we are a signatory to the letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP calling on the Government to back R&D if it wants to achieve its ambitions for sustained economic and social growth. 

GuildHE’s Head of Research Policy Rachel Persad said:

“Such cuts to R&D spending would negatively affect the recurrent research and knowledge exchange funding that is so vital to GuildHE member institutions. These grants underpin research relevant to key professions and industries, and in specialist disciplines that are increasingly under threat from cuts elsewhere in the sector. The strength of UK R&D is its diversity and cuts at this time will undermine that – we are therefore supporting this intervention by CaSE.”

“Recognising that public spending is under pressure, there is a risk that short-term thinking now could damage the UK’s capacity for long-term growth and ambitions around its Industrial Strategy.” – CaSE

Read the CaSE press release and view the letter and signatories