The Royal Academy of Engineering welcomes £1.6bn budget announcement

The Royal Academy of Engineering welcomes yesterday’s budget announcement.

Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE FREng FRS, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says:

“Recent budgets have made welcome strides towards the government’s ambitious target of increasing investment in R&D in the UK from the current 1.7% of GDP to 2.4% by 2027, which is vital for increasing the number of high-value jobs, and driving economic growth.

“Yesterday’s allocation of £1.6bn of investment in science and innovation, focused particularly on new and emerging engineering technologies such as quantum computing and industrial digitalisation, is an encouraging move in support of the government’s Industrial Strategy.

“However, there remains much to do to set the UK firmly on a trajectory to reach the government’s 2.4% target. Recent Academy research with industry leaders has revealed that areas such as support for late-stage development and demonstrators and the potential for public procurement spend to drive innovation have been overlooked. Government must address these issues if the UK is to continue to compete successfully in the global market.”

More information on the Academy’s research on the factors influencing UK engineering businesses’ decisions on R&D investment can be found here.

Royal Academy of Engineering

As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.

We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.

We have three strategic priorities:

• Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses
• Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge
• Position engineering at the heart of society

We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.

Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.