From new ways to treat aggressive cancers to replacing polluting plastics with plants, UKRI is advancing knowledge, improving lives and driving growth.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has published its annual report and accounts for the 2025 to 2026 financial year, which looks at the range of research and innovation it has supported.
Highlights include:
- supporting the development of a promising new antibiotic that’s effective against drug-resistant diseases, like MRSA
- investing in new solar cells that can use indoor light to produce electricity
- revealing 2,000 hidden galaxies, to better understand our Universe
- funding semiconductor innovation to produce more effective and cheaper electric vehicles and 5G communications
- investing in key industries, like Belfast firm Re-Vana Therapeutics, which has just signed a £744 million agreement with a major pharmaceutical firm
A new mission
Last year was pivotal for UKRI, with a new Chief Executive and new mission and an evolving strategy.
It has secured a record financial settlement, allowing it to further support human health and opportunity, our best innovations and our most cutting-edge research.
It remains committed to protecting budgets that yield world-leading discoveries and to managing public money efficiently and effectively.
Focusing on industries of the future
UKRI Chair, Sir Andrew Mackenzie, said:
This year, we began the most significant reform of our investment approach since UKRI’s formation in 2018.
We are reaffirming the importance of curiosity-driven research while sharpening our focus on the industries of the future.
This will strengthen our role as a trusted government partner, helping accelerate the economic and societal impact from public investment.
Work on government missions and the Industrial Strategy demonstrates how our investments can be harnessed and captured to deliver cross-government priorities.
This includes the launch of our first R&D Missions Accelerator Programme (R&DMAP) challenges in August and our first AI strategy in February.
Benefits for the public
UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Ian Chapman, said:
Research and innovation are vital to solving the UK’s greatest challenges and UKRI sits at the heart of public investment in that.
We are advancing knowledge, improving lives and driving growth.
Each year we are entrusted with more than £9 billion of public money.
We deliver on that trust by investing in curiosity-driven research which, over time, has resulted in some of our greatest innovations.
But we also invest in research and innovation with a very immediate benefit for people and the UK economy.
Our annual report tells the story of how we’re working with the UK’s most talented researchers and innovators to deliver benefits that matter to the public we serve.
Improving lives across the UK
A new blood test could transform how cow milk allergy is diagnosed, offering a faster, safer and far more accurate alternative to current methods.
The test, developed through UKRI-supported research led by King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, outperformed standard skin prick and IgE tests in a study of 150 children.
It has the potential to dramatically reduce the need for stressful and clinically risky oral food challenges currently used to confirm diagnosis.
Investing in Northern Ireland
UKRI has helped create more than 1,000 zero-emission buses across the UK and beyond.
It has created more than 500 jobs in Ballymena since 2023 and supporting a further 7,500 jobs across the UK.
Wrightbus, a Ballymena-based bus manufacturer, partnered with Queen’s University Belfast to develop a next-generation zero-emissions urban bus system, designed to cut pollution and transform public transport.
The buses also collectively passed 50 million zero-emission miles in 2025, preventing the emission of over 85,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared to diesel alternatives.
Investing in Wales
Draig Therapeutics, a Cardiff University spin-out company, announced that it had raised $140 million in financing to advance transformative treatments for major neuropsychiatric disorders.
This milestone builds on sustained investment from multiple funders, including eight years of UKRI investment.
Investing in Scotland
Reusable, plant-based theatre caps are reducing NHS waste and improving patient safety at the NHS Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, with rollout planned across 14 more NHS Scotland boards.
Designed by UKRI-funded researchers at the University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University, the caps help staff identify one another quickly in busy clinical areas.
The reusable caps replace single-use viscose caps, whose manufacturing depletes natural forests and relies on harmful chemicals associated with chronic skin and heart conditions linked to cancer.
Investing in England
Concretene, a Manchester-based nanotechnology company supported by UKRI, has developed an innovative concrete that incorporates graphene to cut the carbon of concrete by 20% to 30%.
It also reduces carbon dioxide emissions generated through cement production.
Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials, but its environmental impact is significant due to the energy-intensive process of cement production.
Concretene’s patented technology enhances concrete by incorporating graphene, a material said to be 200 times stronger than steel, improving strength and durability.