29
Not Addressed
UKRI plays a significant role in developing crucial skills for research commercialisation.
Conclusion
DSIT stressed that specific skills are needed to turn research into commercial success.78 Professor Grant told us that UKRI plays a much bigger role than people realise in building the skills of people who move from research into industry.79 UKRI told us it has done a lot of work to shift the incentives in the system to allow people to take a much wider range of careers, including the scope to move more fluidly between academic 72 Qq 85-86 73 Letter from DSIT, 18 June 2025 74 Q 81 75 Q 82 76 Q 81 77 Qq 50 and 82 78 Q 84 79 Q 10 17 research, forming companies, investing, and policy-making.80 DSIT added that UKRI run some programmes specifically tailored to developing the skills needed to get “from spin-out to scale-up to staying in the UK”.81
Government Response Summary
The government states it agrees with a recommendation and outlines future plans for DSIT and UKRI allocations, identifying where to have the greatest impact on scaling innovation, and considering the financial sustainability of university research. However, this response does not address the conclusion, which merely summarised evidence about skills for commercial success.
Government Response
Not Addressed
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2026 DSIT will publish allocations to UKRI in Autumn 2025, and UKRI’s allocations will be published by Spring 2026. DSIT and UKRI will draw on a variety of data sources to understand where to have the greatest impact on scaling innovation domestically. This involves not only assessing where there is strength in research, but also where there are existing or nascent industry strengths, absorption capacity and identifiable market failures. UKRI has recently launched the first round of the new discipline agnostic Proof-of-Concept funding opportunity. Understanding the full impact will only be possible after the first rounds of projects conclude and are evaluated (evaluation dates not yet confirmed). Early insights will contribute to allocation decisions. Scaling innovation is not a linear pipeline from research to scale-up but instead requires an integrated approach across different actors (both private and public) that provides the right policy environment for innovative firms at every stage of their growth journeys. The government’s Industrial Strategy set out how we plan to achieve this. This includes better engagement and alignment between UKRI, the British Business Bank, the National Wealth Fund and other public finance institutions through the new Strategic Public Investment Forum, plus more effective use of public procurement to buy from innovative suppliers, and removing regulatory barriers to scaling. In deciding the aforementioned allocations, DSIT will consider the impact on the financial sustainability of university research. DSIT uses analyses of Transparent Approach to Costing data, as well as insights and analyses provided by UKRI, to understand the financial challenges universities face within the R&I system.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Inquiry
UK Research and Innovation
Report
41st Report - UK Research and Innovation
23 Jul 2025
HC 826
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
1.0 yr
Report published
23 Jul 2025