The report, which has been laid before parliament, includes a performance report providing a summary of UKRI’s performance and finances.
Delivery against the strategic objectives
The report outlines what has been delivered against the six strategic objectives in the strategy, including the following.
People and careers
We invested over £500 million in new Doctoral Landscape awards to support around 4,700 studentships across the engineering and physical sciences, biological sciences and natural and environmental sciences.
We contributed to addressing the underrepresentation of Black heritage researchers across the Medical Research Council and the UK biomedical sciences.
We funded new initiatives in the Black in Biomedical Research project, including:
- a second cohort of Sanger Excellence Fellows
- paid internships for Black biomedical students
Places
We drove innovation in precision medicines by delivering £55 million of funding through UKRI’s Strength in Places Fund, the Northern Ireland Executive and consortium members.
We supported the UK’s Industrial Strategy with the launch of two Arts and Humanities Research Council-led Creative Industries Clusters in Birmingham and Liverpool on creative tech and music.
This was part of a planned £50 million investment.
Ideas
We awarded £32.4 million to 36 projects through round one of the cross-research council responsive mode pilot scheme and launched the second round of funding with a further £32.5 million.
We worked alongside the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to boost UK participation in Horizon Europe through the National Contact Points and the UK Research Office.
We delivered roadshows to promote Horizon Europe opportunities across the UK and awarded pump-priming grants from Innovate UK.
Innovation
We supported business-academic partnerships with over £55 million through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Prosperity Partnership awards.
We launched a £40 million UKRI proof-of-concept fund to support the commercialisation of products, processes and services developed through research.
We implemented the independent review of university spin-outs recommendations, including highlighting universities that have adopted best practice.
Impacts
We enhanced the UK’s global leadership in transformative technologies through our £320 million flagship Technology Missions Fund.
We invested £63 million in 2024 to 2025 targeted at boosting one or more of the UK Science and Technology Framework’s critical technologies.
We launched a £5 million Economic and Social Research Council funding opportunity in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The funding opportunity supported nine Policing Academic Centres of Excellence to connect researchers and users in policing and identify the best research evidence, science and technology.
World-class organisation
We transitioned all new competitive research council grant awards to the new digital UKRI Funding Service platform and operated a full end-to-end service.
The Funding Service has:
- simplified our funding opportunities
- harmonised applicant guidance
- helped users manage opportunities, applications and awards effectively
We streamlined our business processes and technology platforms via the Services for HR, Accounting, Reporting and Procurement (SHARP) programme.
The SHARP programme is working towards upgrading from legacy on-premises systems to Oracle Fusion’s cloud based integrated software as a service solution in summer 2025.