The report updates on progress against UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) strategy: transforming tomorrow together. The report, which has been laid before parliament, includes a performance report providing a summary of UKRI’s performance and finances. The highlights are quoted from the report are below: 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…
Read MoreTag: UKRI
Pea breakthrough could transform global farming and sustainability
More than 160 years after Mendel’s pea experiments, scientists have created a powerful genetic map that could revolutionise farming and food production. The breakthrough unlocks vital traits to help develop more sustainable, resilient and nutritious pea crops worldwide. In a major international collaboration, scientists have unlocked the genetic secrets of over 700 varieties of peas from around the world. This has created a powerful genomic resource that could supercharge the development of hardier, more sustainable crops. The work, published in Nature, is being hailed as a game-changer for food security…
Read MoreFaraday Battery Challenge launches sector wide battery report
UKRI’s Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, has launched a report that forecasts electrification to spur UK battery demand by 2035. Electrification of the UK’s automotive, marine, aerospace, rail and energy storage sectors is expected to drive a significant rise in domestic battery demand by 2035. This increased demand will need an additional 55 gigawatt hours of batteries and presents a large opportunity to cement battery manufacturing within the UK industrial landscape. Need for collaboration A new report, from UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by…
Read MoreUKRI publishes annual report on investment by region and nation
Half of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) investment in research projects last year was made to organisations outside London and the south-east. This is the highest proportion of our funding ever provided to projects outside the greater south-east. It represents a cumulative additional £1.4 billion invested outside the greater south-east since 2021 to 2022. All regions and nations received an increase in UKRI investment between 2021 to 2022 and 2023 to 2024. The greatest absolute increases in investment were in the north-west, the West Midlands and the East Midlands. The…
Read MoreUKRI challenge reveals impact on plastic packaging sustainability
UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, has revealed new data on its sizeable impact on UK plastic packaging sustainability and circularity. The SSPP Challenge has revealed that its work has boosted UK plastics recycling infrastructure. It has also enabled potential carbon dioxide equivalent savings of more than 1.5 million tonnes between 2025 and 2030 as its funded projects have come online and reached commercial scale operation. The challenge is delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The contribution of the £60 million challenge to driving plastic…
Read More