Autumn Statement 2023 Sets Out Spending Plans for UK R&D

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons on 22 November 2023.

Autumn Statement 2023 set out investments of over £750 million in UK R&D, including:

  • £250 million for long-term world-class Discovery Fellowships, £145 million for new business innovation support, and support to establish a National Academy focussed on mathematical sciences.
  • £20 million for a new cross-disciplinary proof-of-concept research funding scheme, to help prospective founders in UK universities demonstrate the commercial potential of their research.
  • £121 million for the UK’s space sector, supporting new space clusters and infrastructure, making progress towards the government’s climate goals by supporting the earth observation industry and delivering new capabilities in low earth orbit satellite communications technology.
  • An ambitious set of quantum missions, including a mission to have accessible, UK-based quantum computers capable of running 1 trillion operations by 2035. Other missions focus on quantum networks, medical applications, navigation, and sensors for infrastructure.
  • The first AI Safety Institute, backed by an initial £100 million investment. In parallel, the government is developing its wider regulatory approach, to balance innovation and safe adoption, publishing its response to the AI white paper by the end of the year, and launching a pilot AI Regulatory Sandbox in spring 2024.
  • Launch of the Manchester Prize which will award prizes of up to £1 million to researchers working on the safe, responsible application of AI over the next 10 years.
  • A further £500 million in compute for AI over the next two financial years bringing the total planned investment in compute to more than £1.5 billion.
  • Up to £20 million of clinical research funding for the first Clinical Trial Delivery Accelerator, focused on dementia, to help innovation reach NHS patients even faster.
  • £520 million in funding from 2025-26 to support transformational manufacturing investments in life sciences. The government will also provide £5 million seed funding to help launch the Fleming Centre, a collaboration led by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
  • A further £51 million for the Our Future Health (OFH) programme, a world-leading resource for health research, to genotype their first 1 million participants and to recruit hundreds of thousands of new volunteers.

Full details of Autumn Statement 2023 are available at the HM Treasury website.