UK applicants will be able to participate in the full Horizon Europe programme and UK entities are eligible to receive grant funding through all instruments of the European Innovation Council. The UK is not part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund – which provides equity finance support to EIC Accelerator projects.

The Government wants to enable collaborative international research, while ensuring universities engage with all companies, including Chinese genomics companies, in a way that takes account of national security concerns and is compliant with the UK’s security policies and regulations. As part of our proactive engagement with academia, the Research Collaboration Advice Team (RCAT) provides tailored advice to universities on national security risks in international collaborations. All advice is provided in confidence and is specific to the context and needs of each university. RCAT advice is informed by the NPSA's Trusted Research campaign and the UK Biological Security Strategy.

The proportion of officials in Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on temporary contracts that are women is 50%.

The proportion of officials in Department for Science, Innovation and Technology that are graded as senior civil servant 2 is 1.4%.

The proportion of officials that are women, on a full-time equivalent basis is 52.5%.

The design and implementation of the REF 2028 is being carried out by the devolved funding bodies of the UK nations, including Research England in England. During this process the funding bodies have engaged widely with stakeholders, including many of the members of the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN), on the design of the next REF. This engagement, including a currently open opportunity to provide written comments, will continue through the autumn and the final design of the REF will take full account of stakeholders’ contributions to the engagement process.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

The 2023 Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows 32% of small businesses and 31% of micro businesses identified having suffered a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months. This is a decline on 2022, however we believe this may be due to smaller businesses deprioritising cyber security and being less likely to identify breaches and attacks, rather than a reduction in the threat.

Our strategy, working with other relevant Departments and Agencies, is therefore to make it as easy as possible for SMEs to be secure.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Government Office for Science are working with all government departments to collect and publish sub-national data on their R&D spending. This will allow us to track progress on the R&D Levelling Up mission to increase domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East by at least 40% by 2030, and by at least a third by 2024-5.

The baseline data for 2020-21 was published in April this year, with data for future years made available in due course.

This year the UK Space Agency has awarded £335,000 funding to the North East space cluster, including to the North East Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications, which is unlocking new opportunities in the North East and to date has helped to secure £12m investment into the region.

The UK Space Agency has also invested £5.7 million into Northumbria University since 2020 through its National Space Innovation Programme to develop the world’s first commercially available laser-based satellite communication system.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service.The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance.The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

The figures from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Dashboard suggest that over 2,000 UK-based private-for-profit entities received almost €1.40 billion from Horizon 2020.

On 7th September the Prime Minister announced a new UK- EU agreement on the UK’s association to Horizon Europe from 2024. This means UK businesses and researchers can participate confidently in the world’s largest programme of research cooperation.

In addition, support for businesses and researchers continues to be available via the Horizon Europe guarantee which covers all remaining Horizon grant calls up to and including work programme 2023.

As of 30 September 2023, the Guarantee has issued 2,654 Grants worth £1.395 billion. Further detail on UK participation can be found at UKRI’s Gateway to research website.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is an independent body. Its most recent release on business enterprise research and development (BERD) was part of an on-going programme of work to improve economic statistics and data capture. The ONS figures provided the best estimate of R&D expenditure at the total UK level which had been validated against other available data. However, there was less data for validation and increased uncertainty in the estimates below the total BERD figures. The Government looks forward to further improvements from the ONS in how the statistics are compiled in future releases, including granular data on products and sectors.