In her response Ms Lopez said:

While Ms Lopez might not want to say this is a cut, moving 20% of UKRIs budget would represent a big shift. It would mean stopping a substantial amount of existing research, much of which already underpins national security, provides the skilled individuals needed for all types of R&D, and supports national capabilities in critical technologies in a time of geo-political instability. Some of these critical technologies are mentioned in Ms Lopez’s reply.

It is also worth mentioning that although Ms Lopez says she was “first made aware of [CaSE’s letter] via a press enquiry.”, CaSE’s letter was sent to the Shadow Secretary of State directly via email on the 21st April, before being posted on our website later that day, as we stated we would in the letter. The media subsequently picked it up from our website and covered it on the 24th April.

How can the R&D sector navigate a shifting political landscape

As a sector, we must prepare to navigate more of this type of unanticipated and substantial pivot in R&D policy. The fragmenting political landscape presents a real risk to the cross-party consensus on R&D that has persisted for over a decade. This represents one of the drivers of change identified in our Reimagining R&D project, and CaSE is underway with an evidence-led review exploring how shifts across the voter landscape might affect R&D advocacy, providing practical insights for R&D advocates. Equipping ourselves to navigate this changing political context is crucial if we want to achieve the vision for the sector set out in Re-imagining R&D.

So far, we’ve reviewed the body of evidence that’s already out there with our research agency partners, and will extending this with new public opinion research soon.