Research infrastructure is one of the foundational pillars to the UK’s world-class strength in research. It is a national asset that supports researchers – not just from universities and academia, but from industry too – to undertake vital work which they otherwise would not be able to do.
Last month we submitted our response to the Public Accounts Committee on research infrastructure. We highlight that investment in research infrastructure, and the world-class strength of the UK’s research sector must go hand in hand. While positive strides have been made towards better aligning investment in research infrastructure with national priorities, there is a sizeable cost to maintaining universities’ research infrastructure assets, at a time when the higher education sector is under severe financial strain.
We also discussed that it would be helpful for UKRI to provide an update to its landscape analysis of the UK’s research infrastructure alongside a “major refresh” of the roadmap programmes.
