Preparing the R&D sector to navigate a shifting voter landscape 

Broad but shallow support

Last November, CaSE published our landmark Public Attitudes to R&D 2025 study, exploring public attitudes across a nationally representative sample of 8,000 UK adults. The findings offer a stark warning – while support for R&D is broad, it is dangerously shallow.

On the surface, the numbers look promising – 88% of the public say it’s important for the UK government to invest money in R&D. However, beneath this surface-level approval lies a disconnection between R&D and society that threatens the sector’s long-term political security.

CaSE’s data shows that less than a third of people feel personally connected with R&D, and just 18% can immediately think of lots of ways it benefits them or their families. In a political climate defined by pessimism – with 62% agreeing that the UK is in decline and just 39% feeling optimistic things will get better – this lack of connection is a huge risk. If voters don’t see R&D as relevant, or as something that can bring tangible, personal benefits, we can’t expect them to defend it – or support those who do – if the political tide turns.

Navigating a new landscape

Robust evidence is needed to help R&D organisations to prepare for, and navigate, a fragmenting political landscape. We must move beyond generic messaging and start landing the right messages at the right moments with the right audiences.

To help fill this gap, CaSE is launching a new project: R&D in a shifting voter landscape. This will be an evidence-led review exploring how shifts in the full breadth of the voter landscape might affect R&D advocacy, providing practical insights for R&D advocates to use through the 2026 party conferences and beyond.

The core part of this project will cast a wide net for relevant public and political data – combining CaSE’s existing catalogue of evidence with wider sources from across and outside our sector. These combined insights will be used to design a new qualitative research programme exploring the range of voters’ concerns and motivations, and develop practical advice for the R&D community to be published in the early autumn.

We’ll be keeping CaSE Members updated as the project progresses:

Expanding on this core project funded via CaSE’s grant from the Wellcome Trust, we’re seeking partners to sponsor and shape ‘deep dives’ into polarising issues or risks which might undermine the sector’s messaging and political advocacy. These issues will be identified by the partners, but might explore how R&D intersects with voter opinions towards topics such as immigration, NIMBY-ism or national security. 

Each deep dive will involve new large-scale polling of the voter base to test messaging, explore counter arguments and yield practical insights to help navigate these challenging topics. These deep dives would be combined into the overall report published in September, providing insights to help inform engagement through the 2026 party conference season and beyond.

Getting involved

We are inviting all R&D organisations to engage with our call for evidence, by highlighting relevant data or insights that we should draw into review process – whether that’s from your own organisation, or external sources you’ve found helpful. 

CaSE also invites potential deep dive partners to get in touch with CaSE to explore which topics might help your organisation navigate the advocacy landscape ahead.

As a sector, we cannot afford to let R&D become a casualty of political fragmentation. By understanding voters better, our sector can evolve our messaging and tactics to keep R&D at the heart of the UK’s future.