New approach to R&D needed to address regional inequalities

New approaches to Government Research and Development (R&D) initiatives are needed to 'level up' the UK, according to a new UCL-authored report. Published today by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) independent think tank, the report aims to contribute to the debate around the role of research funding - and its economic impact on tackling regional inequalities. It calls for a greater emphasis on measuring the impact of research on different areas of the UK, more power for local governments to lead R&D initiatives, better metrics for success, greater financial sustainability, and strong relationships between regional and national R&D strategies. The authors looked at the spread of Research and Development ( R&D) investment in several parts of the world to put the UK picture into its wider context. Their analysis reveals that while much of the UK's research investments is concentrated in the south and east of the country, the uneven distribution is not unique to the UK, and is a widespread characteristic of research globally; the UK's research comparators, such as the US and Germany, were found to have even greater geographical concentration of research funding overall. Regions with the highest levels of R&D spending were also found to contain the greatest variation in levels of spending; these regions were often home to sub-regions with low funding levels, and variations in funding levels within regions were often found to be greater than between regions.