Details on science funding scarce in latest UK budget
Concerns voiced over R&D’s exact role in economic recovery from the pandemic and paying for membership of the EU’s science programme
Experts in science and research funding have given a tepid welcome to the budget announced by Rishi Sunak, the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, on 3 March.
The reaction is in stark contrast to widespread plaudits from the scientific community in response to last March’s budget, which promised big increases in government funding for R&D. At the time, researchers welcomed the UK government’s pledge to vastly increase public R&D spending to £22 billion by 2024–2025, with the wider aim to reach the target of 2.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on R&D by 2027.