The Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme (R&D MAP) supports research and innovation that aligns with the UK government’s five national missions. It focuses on new ideas that can improve lives, strengthen public services and support the economy.
Scope
The programme addresses research and innovation challenges across the UK government’s five mission areas.
Safer streets mission
The safer streets mission aims to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls within a decade, while increasing public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system.
Breaking down barriers to opportunity mission
The breaking down barriers to opportunity mission aims to give children the best start in life through high quality early education, childcare and accessible family support services.
Clean energy mission
The clean energy mission is the UK’s world-leading response to climate change with its twin focus on Clean Power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero. It aims to increase clean power and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Health mission
The health mission is transforming care by reducing pressure on hospitals and improving patient outcomes across key areas, including dementia diagnosis and patient pathways.
Economic growth mission
The economic growth mission aims to build digital marketplaces that revolutionise how the UK will construct homes and infrastructure, and how creative content is shared and monetised.
What we’re doing
The programme is delivered by UKRI in partnership with relevant government departments.
Each research and innovation challenge sets clear and measurable targets with specific deadlines for real-world impact. This helps to ensure research and innovation deliver tangible results that benefit people across the UK.
It supports both projects with strong evidence of impact and more experimental work where success could lead to significant benefits. Projects that are not delivering are expected to stop early, so funding can be used elsewhere.
Research and innovation challenges
These targeted challenges bring together researchers, businesses, and public services to develop and test solutions across the five government mission areas.
Concentrations of crime data research and innovation challenge
This challenge focuses on developing integrated data approaches to better understand, detect and respond to patterns of crime and anti-social behaviour.
SEN identification and support research and innovation challenge
This challenge is developing tools and approaches that support earlier identification and more consistent support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It is designed to work across education and healthcare settings.
2GW peak time flexibility research and innovation challenge
This challenge works with industry to develop digital and data-driven solutions that improve flexibility and resilience across the energy system.
Dementia patient flow research and innovation research and innovation challenge
This challenge supports the development and testing of innovations that enable earlier dementia diagnosis and improve patient pathways across health and care services.
Industrialising and digitalising construction research and innovation challenge
This challenge explores new digital manufacturing approaches that improve how homes and infrastructure are designed and delivered.
Developing a UK infrastructure for creative content exchange research and innovation challenge
This challenge is developing a trusted digital marketplace that helps creative and cultural content owners connect with buyers and explore new licensing opportunities.
More challenges will be announced.
Cross-sector collaboration
All funded projects involve collaboration across universities, research organisations, industry partners, and the third sector. This helps ensure solutions are developed with the people who will use them and can be adopted in real-world settings.
Turning research into practice
The programme funds activity that bridges the gap between research and real-world implementation, including:
- prototyping
- running pilot projects and real-world trials
- supporting organisations to scale innovations into practical use
Supporting the systems and skills needed
The programme also supports the system needed to make innovation work, such as data platforms, regulatory frameworks and innovation networks.
Strategic coordination
It works with other funders and government departments to plan activity together. This helps ensure complementary investment, avoid duplication and maximise impact.
Attracting investment
It is designed to attract private and public sector investment. This helps bring new ideas to market more quickly and increase the impact of taxpayer funding.
Built-in routes to adoption
Unlike traditional research funding, the programme builds adoption into every challenge from the start.
Each challenge has a plan setting out:
- how successful solutions will be procured or commissioned
- what policy or regulatory changes may be needed
- which organisations will implement the innovations
These plans evolve as challenges progress and new solutions emerge. This ensures that when research proves effective, there’s already a clear pathway for it to be used across public services, rather than waiting years for findings to be picked up.