07 July 2020 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
The government announced two measures last week to support and fund university research, as part of its R&D road map that will see the government aim to increase R&D investment to £22billion a year by 2025. From the Autumn, universities will be able to access low-interest loans, supplemented by government grants, to cover up to 80% of losses to research from a drop in the number of international students. Secondly, there will be a smaller pot of £280million made available for grant extensions to support researcher salaries and other costs.
The road map also outlines measures not directly related to HE, such as £300million to upgrade scientific infrastructure, a new ‘Office for Talent’ that hopes to make it easier for international scientists and researchers to come to the UK, and changes to the visa regime that should allow PhD students to stay in the UK for three years post-study.
Dave Kernohan at Wonkhe has his say on the announcement here, while the government is asking for feedback on, and more ideas for aspects of the road map announced so far.
