strategic delivery plan research england

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• Department of Health & Social Care

The Future of Clinical Research Delivery: 2022 to 2025 implementation plan

Published 30 June 2022

© Crown copyright 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-future-of-uk-clinical-research-delivery-2022-to-2025-implementation-plan/the-future-of-clinical-research-delivery-2022-to-2025-implementation-plan

Ministerial foreword

In 2021 we, the UK and devolved governments, set out our vision for the future of clinical research delivery. Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery lays out our ambition to create a world-leading UK clinical research environment that is more efficient, more effective and more resilient, with research delivery embedded across the NHS. We also set out our plans for 2021 to 2022 , as the first steps in delivering on the vision.

A digitally enabled, pro-innovation and people-centred clinical research environment is key to realising our ambitions to make the UK a world-leading hub for life sciences that delivers improved health outcomes for our citizens and attracts investment from all over the world. We will harness the explosion in innovative technologies to benefit patient outcomes and make a tangible difference to people’s lives across the UK. Clinical research is crucial to these efforts, as the lynchpin to driving improvements in healthcare.

As we emerge from the shadow of the pandemic and look to the future, we will work together to ensure that the UK is seen to be one of the best places in the world to deliver cutting-edge clinical research. We are working hard both to recover research delivery in the NHS and to use this moment as a catalyst for transformation, building increased resilience and embedding innovative practice as we go. The cross-sector partnerships built through the UK Clinical Research Recovery, Resilience and Growth ( RRG ) programme provide the strong foundations we need to succeed, drawing on expertise and support from industry, academia, charities, patients and the public, regulators, funders and the NHS.

Our vision was clear on the importance of unleashing the true potential of clinical research across the UK, addressing long-standing health inequalities and improving the lives of us all. We, the UK and devolved governments, are excited to set out the next stages as we look to turn our vision into a reality and build a clinical research system of the future.

Lord Kamall of Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Technology, Innovation and Life Sciences Department of Health and Social Care

Robin Swann Minister for Health Northern Ireland Executive

Eluned Morgan Minister for Health and Social Services Welsh Government

Humza Yousaf Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Scottish Government

Executive summary

In March 2021, we published our bold and ambitious 10 year vision: Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery . This was followed in June 2021 by The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery: 2021 to 2022 implementation plan setting out the steps we would take to progress the vision in 2021 to 2022.

This phase 2 plan summarises the progress that we have made so far and the actions that we will take over the next 3 years, from 2022 to 2025, ensuring we make the progress necessary to achieve our vision in full by 2031.

This plan has been developed by the cross-sector UK Clinical Research RRG Programme in consultation with stakeholders from across the clinical research ecosystem. Our plan is centred around the 5 overarching themes identified in the vision:

• a sustainable and supported research workforce to ensure that healthcare staff of all backgrounds and roles are given the right support to deliver clinical research as an essential part of care
• clinical research embedded in the NHS so that research is increasingly seen as an essential part of healthcare to generate evidence about effective diagnosis, treatment and prevention
• people-centred research to make it easier for patients, service users and members of the public across the UK to access research and be involved in the design of research, and to have the opportunity to participate
• streamlined, efficient and innovative research so that the UK is seen as one of the best places in the world to conduct cutting-edge clinical research, driving innovation in healthcare
• research enabled by data and digital tools to ensure the best use of resources, leveraging the strength of UK health data assets to allow for more high-quality research to be delivered

We have made significant progress over the past year – a new combined review process has led to halving of approval times for new Clinical Trials of Investigational Medicinal Products (CTIMPs) since January 2022 compared to previous separate applications, streamlining the route through the regulatory journey for researchers, the world-leading £200 million data for research and development programme has been announced to invest in health data infrastructure in England with devolved administrations aligning and strengthening their infrastructure; and a new UK-wide professional accreditation scheme for Clinical Research Practitioners ( CRP ) has been launched to help double the size of this important workforce in the future.

However, the recovery of research delivery following the pandemic remains challenging. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England are taking firm action to address this, with the support of the devolved administrations, through the ‘Research Reset’ programme. We are committed not only to returning to pre-pandemic levels of performance, but to using this as an opportunity to reform and catalyse the transformation needed to create the flourishing, responsive and resilient system set out in our vision.

The phase 2 plan is aligned with funding confirmed through the government spending review for April 2022 to March 2025 and includes up to £150 million of additional funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research ( NIHR ) and £25 million additional funding from RRG partners across the UK, complementing up to £200 million in England for the data for research and development programme announced in March 2022 and demonstrating the government’s ongoing commitment to delivering on the UK’s potential as a global life sciences superpower. This funding will enable RRG partners to:

• recover the UK’s capacity to deliver research through DHSC and NHS England’s Research Reset programme, and aligned work in the devolved administrations, aiming for 80% of all open studies on the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) portfolio to be delivering to time and target by June 2023
• ensure we can recognise and support our expert workforce, and develop robust workforce plans, providing the basis for strategic investment in capacity development to support achievement of our vision in full
• broaden responsibility and accountability for research across the NHS, and improve measurement, visibility and recognition of those supporting the delivery of clinical research studies
• achieve a sector-wide, sustained shift in how studies are designed and delivered so that inclusive, practicable and accessible research is delivered with and for the people with the greatest need and in ways that enable us to tackle the greatest challenges facing the NHS
• streamline processes, strengthen our regulatory environment and ensure faster approval, set-up and delivery of studies with more predictability and less variation, as well as make it easier to understand and access the UK’s clinical research offer, thereby utilising the unique opportunity to develop a more flexible and improved regulatory model for clinical research outside the EU and improving our attractiveness as a leading destination to conduct cutting edge and global multi-centre clinical studies
• invest in the infrastructure and tools needed to implement people-centred, innovative data and digitally-enabled methods and increase partnership working across the health data ecosystem to ensure people across the whole of the UK can benefit from these approaches

The RRG programme will oversee the delivery of this plan, continuing to work in partnership with stakeholders across the sector and regularly revisiting the original vision to consider any further actions that will be needed to deliver it in full. In doing so, we will ensure that the NHS is able to tackle the healthcare challenges of the future and people across the UK and around the world will benefit from better health outcomes.

Further information about the RRG programme, including our delivery partners and governance , are available on the dedicated Recovery Resilience and Growth website . Detailed summaries of our progress to date and our future plans will be published on the site on an ongoing basis, providing a central point of information and updates about the programme and our progress towards achievement of the vision. You can also sign up to receive regular email updates on our progress.

UK-wide approach

Health policy is a devolved responsibility, where each of the UK administrations has distinct ownership over implementation. However, we are committed to delivering on a vision with a UK-wide reach and in pursuit of a common goal: to create a seamless and interoperable service across the UK to support clinical research delivery, shaping the future of healthcare and improving people’s lives.

We are therefore further strengthening a joined-up system, where sponsors of both commercial and non-commercial research can easily deliver studies across the UK and people can more easily participate. To ensure compatible and consistent ways of working across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland many commitments in this plan are focused on UK-wide implementation. Organisations such as MHRA ( Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ) and systems such as IRAS ( Integrated Research Application System ) have a UK-wide reach and their actions will have impacts across the country. In some instances, actions are being led by a specific organisation on behalf of the UK, while others will be delivered through UK partnerships – recognising the different legislative and delivery contexts across the UK government and devolved administrations.

The needs of UK citizens and our health research system are broad and diverse. We are committed to maintaining a rich and balanced portfolio of studies in rare and common diseases, ranging from complex, intensive studies in small, highly targeted populations to pragmatic population health research in large cohorts, using a range of methodologies and methods as appropriate to the research questions.

Our vision focuses specifically on the future of UK clinical research delivery. Other types of research, including social care and public health research, are vitally important to provide the evidence necessary to support policy making and service delivery in these areas. Many partners involved in the RRG programme support this broader programme of research activity and other work programmes are underway to enable their development. We expect that many of the improvements we make in the clinical research environment will have benefits for other kinds of research and will work across our organisations and with wider groups of stakeholders to ensure the lessons are shared.

Research reset

As we recover from the pandemic, clinical research delivery is facing unprecedented challenges and there is an urgent need to reset the UK’s research portfolio so we can build for a stronger future.

The number of studies in the NHS is now higher than ever before. This is accounted for by the additional COVID-19 studies, other research that has remained on the portfolio from before the pandemic and has been paused or delayed, together with new studies being funded and coming into the system. In addition, the number of studies in set up is now much higher than pre-pandemic, further increasing the workload for NHS R&D offices and research delivery teams. This is taking place in the context of the recovery of wider NHS services and resourcing the high number of studies is challenging. Throughout this, the resilience of the workforce has been remarkable.

Recovery of the UK’s capacity to deliver clinical research is essential if we are to deliver the ambitions set out in this phase 2 plan. Indeed, many of the challenges the vision seeks to address have been exacerbated by the pandemic, so Research Reset and reform go hand in hand.

Since summer 2020, all delivery partners across the sector have been working to restore the diverse and balanced portfolio of studies which were impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While this has had some positive impact, it has not resulted in the restoration of activity across all studies that were underway before the pandemic. We are taking further action through the Research Reset programme to build back a thriving, sustainable and diverse research and development portfolio within the NHS.

Our objective in implementing Research Reset is to give as many studies as possible the chance of completing and yielding results, generating the evidence needed to improve care and sustain our health system. However, this will require closure of studies that are not viable in the current context to free delivery resources in the system for those studies that can deliver. Lessons must also be learned to reform and increase the resilience of our research system. As part of this we have asked funders and research sponsors to review their active studies to assess the viability of delivering these within the capacity available.

Our aim is for 80% of all open studies on the NIHR CRN portfolio to be delivering to time and target by June 2023. We will take an agile approach to the Research Reset programme, continuously assessing whether further action is required with the input of stakeholders across the sector including patients and the public.

The devolved governments support this approach and we are working together across the UK to ensure synergistic arrangements are in place to promote the smooth delivery of cross-border studies. Each devolved administration will also review possible new eligibility criteria for national delivery support to ensure deliverability within available resources is feasible.

A sustainable and supported research workforce

The UK clinical research workforce has been fundamental to our collective success to date and will be critical to the achievement of our vision in the future. Healthcare and research staff of all backgrounds must be offered rewarding, challenging and exciting careers within clinical research, so that the most talented people can be brought into clinical research, including research delivery and R&D management, as a life-long career. This will help to bolster the capacity of the clinical research system and support a motivated and sustainable workforce. Collectively, we can realise the potential of UK clinical research to improve outcomes for people across the country, sustain our NHS and improve the economy.

Progress over the past 12 months:

• in England, to support the drive to recover the portfolio, DHSC provided over £30 million of additional funding via the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) in the 2021 to 2022 financial year to increase research delivery capacity, especially in community settings and with a key focus on achieving flexibility and agility in the workforce. The Welsh Government provided £1.7 million to support additional capacity in order to achieve the recovery of non-COVID-19 research, including development of research capacity outside of hospital settings. £3 million of funding from the Department of Health in Northern Ireland has been provided to support the work of a Taskforce established to address clinical research recovery in Northern Ireland
• the NIHR , working with the devolved administrations, launched a UK census for nurses and midwives working in clinical research in order to understand the true size of this workforce. Data was also sought on location, speciality and banding or grade. It was able to identify that there are at least 7,469 research nurses and midwives across the UK and Ireland working at every level and within all areas of healthcare. This census demonstrates the breadth and depth of nurse and midwife involvement in research across the healthcare sector
• in June 2021, NIHR on behalf of the UK launched a new UK-wide professional accreditation scheme for Clinical Research Practitioners ( CRP ) as part of efforts to double the number of this important workforce over the next few years. Over 1,000 members have already signed up to the CRP directory
• NIHR also launched the UK wide Associate Principal Investigator Scheme, which aims to make research a routine part of clinical training so doctors, nurses and allied health professions can become the principle investigators of the future. Over 1,000 health and care professionals had registered for the scheme by April 2022
• in February 2022, Wales published a vision for research career pathways that outlines recommendations to improve support and encourage more health and social care professionals to embark on research careers

Phase 2 commitments

To continue this progress and build towards a sustainable and supported research workforce, we will ensure we can retain and recognise our expert staff and develop robust workforce plans to provide the basis for strategic investment in capacity development:

• the RRG Programme will lead the development of a cross-sector research workforce plan to support implementation of our vision in full. Developed over 2022 to 2023, this plan will guide additional investment in our workforce from 2024
• RRG  partners will ensure workforce plans developed by key healthcare organisations include research requirements, particularly noting the knowledge and skills needed across the wider workforce to deliver research as an essential part of high-quality care. This will include the NHS People Plan , coordinating with Health Education England and DHSC, and equivalent plans in the devolved administrations
• NHS England, working with its partners is developing a comprehensive, long-term NHS workforce plan. This will include consideration of research requirements to support the delivery of high-quality care
• Health Education and Improvement Wales, working closely with Welsh Government and the NHS, will develop plans to support and facilitate the nursing, midwifery, allied healthcare professionals and health sciences professions in embracing research as part of their roles and career pathways. Through the development of competency and skills frameworks, Health and Care Research Wales is working to support the inclusion of research delivery roles
• NIHR will provide investment to support NHS R&D transformation, increase research capacity including nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals, and provide more opportunities for rewarding careers in research
• the  RRG  partners will expand the package of training programmes for the research workforce including through the RCP- NIHR  Credentialing Scheme, the  NIHR  Associate PI scheme, the  NIHR  Nurse and Midwife Leaders Programme, an NHS England programme for executive nurses in Trusts and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), and a research matron’s toolkit
• NIHR  and the devolved administrations will invest in learning and support for researchers, so that they are equipped with the expertise and cultural competency to design and deliver people-centred studies to meet the needs of patients, service users and the public, including those from underserved communities and groups not traditionally served by research
• in support for NHS R&D transformation, Wales will invest in a new Health and Care Research Wales Faculty, which will include increased investment in the NHS Research Time scheme to help develop the next generation of principal and chief investigators in the NHS alongside enhanced mentorship schemes

Clinical research delivery embedded in the NHS

Our aim is to create a step change in the delivery of clinical research in the NHS, so that research is increasingly seen as an essential part of healthcare. Making research an intrinsic part of clinical care means that patients and service users can expect to have access to the most cutting-edge treatments and technologies. We want the NHS to actively participate in generating evidence about effective diagnosis, prevention and treatment through research. By acknowledging the important role of the whole of the healthcare workforce in clinical research delivery, we can ensure everyone is empowered to get involved in research and further boost overall capacity for research in the NHS and wider health system. Measuring clinical research will also support NHS leaders to drive behaviour change and incentivise more engagement in research activity. Finally, ensuring clinical research is embedded within the NHS will be essential in giving the UK the capacity to grow in an increasingly competitive global market.

Progress in Phase 1:

the UK Research and Development (UKRD) and NHS R&D Forum, with NIHR , developed the ‘Best Patient Care, Clinical Research and You’ online guide that aims to help busy non-research staff become more aware of the impact of research in their trust

the General Medical Council (GMC) published its position statement Normalising Research - Promoting Research for all Doctors

the Allied Health Professions’ Research and Innovation Strategy was published, addressing the key areas which impact research and innovation across all health professions in England

the NHS Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England published the strategic plan for research for nurses. The plan aims to create a people-centred research environment that empowers nurses to lead, participate in and deliver clinical research that is fully embedded in practice and professional decision making

together with existing strategies in the devolved administrations, we are continuing the development of UK-wide support for the key professional groups

In order to more deeply embed clinical research in the NHS, we will take action to broaden responsibility and accountability for research across the NHS, and improve measurement, visibility and recognition of those supporting the delivery of clinical research studies. The role of healthcare leaders and professionals will be vital in this:

NHS England and the devolved administrations will each develop clear and tangible plans to work towards embedding responsibility and accountability for research in healthcare delivery

• NHS England and the devolved administrations will use existing legal duties and planning frameworks to promote and facilitate research. Each administration will develop assurance frameworks and use existing channels such as annual reports and joint forward plans to help cement the importance of research as a core duty. In England this will include the implementation of the Health and Care Act . Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), NHS England and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will all have enhanced duties to report on how they are promoting and facilitating research. NHS England will also lead development of a research framework for ICBs to help them understand and fulfil the minimum expectations around research that the Health and Care Act sets. This will herald a significant shift in how research is considered within the NHS and drive a greater responsibility for more research activity across all sites. In Wales, we will explore opportunities provided through the development of the NHS Executive in Wales to strengthen the national oversight of NHS research
• we will work across the UK administrations to introduce new metrics and measures to increase the visibility and recognition for undertaking and supporting clinical research across NHS organisations
• NIHR , working in partnership with NHS England and the devolved governments, like the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE), will continue to enhance the UK Be Part of Research platform through collaboration with other existing registries. National digital channels (for example the NHS App or NHS website) will feed into the Be Part of Research platform

The RRG programme will ensure strategic co-ordination of this work across the UK clinical research ecosystem, supporting progress and ensuring alignment of initiatives, as well as identifying key areas where we can go further in the next 3 years.

People-centred research 

The vision set out our ambition for more people-centred research, designed to make it easier for patients, service users and members of the public to access research of relevance to them and be involved in its design. To achieve this, delivery of research in community, primary care and virtual settings needs to increase, with delivery designed around the needs of the people participating in it. Alongside this, we will ensure we maintain our world-leading specialist research infrastructure, which provides opportunities for people to access early-phase studies, complex therapies and devices.

• delivering studies such as PANORAMIC and IBS-RELIEVE has demonstrated the UK’s growing ability to harness technology and conduct studies virtually and in the community
• HRA and MHRA, in collaboration with NHS Research Scotland, Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (the equivalent to the NHS in Northern Ireland), and Health and Social Care Research Wales, have published UK-wide guidance on the set up of interventional research to enable research to be delivered across organisational boundaries and to help take research to where people might find it easier to take part, for example using hub and spoke models
• the NIHR led UK Working Group on Remote Trial Delivery published a report in June, which discussed the challenges and opportunities in remote trial delivery and provided guidance for researchers
• the NIHR Race Equality Framework was piloted by industry. This self-assessment tool helps organisations to improve racial equality in health and care research
• partners across the UK are working together to ensure patient and public involvement in research in a variety of ways including through regulation, ethics, payment for public contributors and development of new public engagement strategies. This includes the publication of a shared commitment to public involvement in research to ensure involvement is built into study design, delivery, and dissemination
• in Northern Ireland the Clinical Research Recovery Resilience and Growth Taskforce implementation plan includes a patient and public engagement and involvement sub-group, which is focused on the development of patient and public centred priorities, and an innovation sub-group planning approaches to innovative and people-centred trial design
• in Wales, the ‘Discover your Role’ programme is underway, with a co-created action plan to ensure that people are at the heart of new developments in research
• the NHS Research Scotland patient and public involvement workshop series completed and reported in September 2021. Findings from the workshops and the Scottish Patient Public Involvement Survey are informing work to support greater visibility and connectivity, increased diversity and representation, and a review of the current mechanisms for pre-award funding
• RRG partners have partnered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) registry to make it easy for researchers to fulfil their transparency responsibilities. Trial registration is the first step to ensuring research transparency from the outset, and from 2022 the HRA began automatic registration of clinical research with ISRCTN , taking the burden away from research sponsors and researchers

Our aim will be to achieve a sector-wide, sustained shift in how studies are designed and delivered so that inclusive, practicable and accessible research is delivered with and for the people with the greatest need and in ways that enable us to tackle the greatest challenges facing the NHS. The UK’s ability to deliver diverse trials and studies will also give us a competitive advantage on the global stage, attracting researchers from around the world to base their studies here:

• the HRA is leading a cross-sector project , co-produced with public contributors, to collect evidence about how high quality, people-centred clinical research is done well: finding out what matters most, what ‘good’ looks like and what might be making it difficult. It will make recommendations to help improve the way clinical research happens in the UK and disseminate information about actions and resources developed by partners
• NIHR will invest in the development of skills and tools for innovative trial delivery, increasing the confidence and ability of our researchers to design and deliver studies in people-centred ways
• NHS England will launch a toolkit that could be used by researchers across the UK to help them engage more effectively with selected underserved communities. NIHR will also promote increased use of the resources developed by the NIHR INCLUDE project project which enable researchers to increase inclusion of underserved communities in their research
• NIHR and NHS Digital will develop mechanisms to monitor the diversity of people participating in NIHR Clinical Research Network portfolio studies in England in order that we can understand where improvement is needed and what action will be most effective.
• in England, the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative will invest in demand signalling (the process of identifying, prioritising and articulating the most important research questions) and horizon scanning (the process of identifying and better understanding emerging transformational technologies of potential benefit to the NHS and our communities) to improve identification of the most needed treatments and technologies and rapidly bring these into clinical use
• in Scotland, SHIP is leading the new Scottish Health and Industry Partnership Demand Signalling Plan. This new framework will support identification and decision making around key strategic challenges and operational pressures to accelerate NHS Scotland Re-mobilisation, Recovery and Re-design, aligning with delivery of the NHS Recovery Plan 2021 to 2026, and the Life Science Vision healthcare missions
• medical research charities play an important role in supporting people-centred research, utilising their contacts with patients and communities, and prioritising their needs when setting a research agenda. The Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) will be working with NIHR and NHS England to formalise this work – and will share findings once developed across the UK

The RRG programme will ensure strategic co-ordination of this work across the UK clinical research ecosystem, supporting progress and ensuring alignment of initiatives, as well as identifying key areas where we can go further within the next 3 years.

Work is also underway to improve access to research through digitised recruitment as detailed in the section on research delivery enabled by data and digital tools.

Streamlined, efficient and innovative research 

Facilitating research to happen quickly and predictably will not only bolster our economy and status as a life sciences superpower, but will also drive innovation, which translates into improved care. We have the opportunity to develop a more flexible and improved regulatory model for clinical research outside the EU in the best interests of patients and the public, and since the publication of the vision we have been building towards our aims of supporting a more streamlined, efficient, and effective clinical research environment.

Progress in phase 1:

• in a new approach to licensing and regulation implemented by the MHRA, NICE, the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre (AWTTC) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), over 100 innovation passports have been issued through the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP), to robustly and safely support the path to market of the most innovative, transformative treatments
• the combined review from the MHRA and the UK Research Ethics Service, in collaboration with the HRA facilitates speedier set up for clinical research trials by requiring applicants to only make a single application for both Clinical Trial Authorisation (CTA) and Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval. Since January 2022, all new Clinical Trials of Investigational Medicinal Products (CTIMPS) in the UK have been benefiting from the combined review, halving the approval time compared with separate applications over the period 2018 to 2021
• the range of model UK contracts agreed with industry and the NHS has been expanded including the first UK-wide model Clinical Investigations Agreement (UK mCIA) for research in medical devices, and the first Model Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (mCDA) for use by companies with potential NHS sites has also been launched
• the MHRA ran a public consultation on proposals for legislative changes for clinical research. The proposals aim to promote patient and public involvement in clinical research, increase the diversity of participants, streamline clinical research approvals, enable innovation, and enhance clinical research transparency. The consultation sought the views of the wider public, clinical research participants, researchers, developers, manufacturers, sponsors, investigators, and healthcare professionals to help shape this important future legislation and over 2,000 responses were received
• NHS England published refreshed guidance on Excess Treatment Costs (ETCs), expanding the framework to include studies where Clinical Commissioning Groups are the commissioner for the service where the study takes place and setting out the provider types which can utilise the national payment system in England. From April 2022 the provider thresholds for ETCs has been reduced, meaning that the number of providers who receive ETCs will increase

In our next phase of work, we will streamline processes, further strengthen our regulatory environment and ensure faster approval, set-up and delivery of studies with more predictability and less variation. Significant emphasis will be placed on reducing unwarranted variation in ways of working across sites and other research infrastructure, so that conducting clinical research in the UK is high quality, predictable and reliable. This will be particularly important for commercial contract research as speed and predictability is key to the UK’s competitiveness and our ability to attract global multi-centre research studies into the NHS.

The UK is globally recognised for its scientific expertise and dedicated research infrastructure. However, the devolved healthcare systems and competition between organisations has created a complex landscape which is difficult to navigate and creates barriers for researchers and companies. We will work across the UK clinical research system to ensure it is easier to understand and is attractive as a leading destination to conduct cutting edge clinical studies.

To improve research approvals and strengthen our regulatory frameworks:

• a single UK approval service will replace HRA and HCRW Approval and equivalent process in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and site permission and confirmation processes across the UK
• MHRA will work with HRA in continuing the development of IRAS to streamline health technology and medicines research, and HRA will explore whether it is viable to embed a fast-track ethics review as part of combined review
• HRA will lead UK-wide work to further expand the suite of model agreements, including decentralised and other innovative delivery models as well as particular fields of innovative products such as Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products
• following public consultation on proposals for legislative changes for clinical research, the MHRA is now carefully analysing the responses received, preparing a Government response and developing secondary legislation to improve and strengthen our clinical research legislation
• MHRA will support risk-proportionate trial conduct and monitoring, including through Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidance and pragmatic investigator guidance, and will work with HRA to develop guidance on use of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) in clinical research
• MHRA and HRA will also establish a comprehensive stakeholder reference group to assist with guidance generation on new legislation and ensure there is a common understanding of regulatory requirements that will enhance the UK’s international attractiveness as a place to conduct multinational trials

To improve study set-up:

• learning lessons from delivering COVID-19 research, we will enhance our early feedback service offer via the NIHR CRN to support study design that is optimised for delivery and explore how we can further match research delivery demand to capacity across the UK
• we will implement the UK-wide National Contract Value Review (NCVR), with the aim of expediting the costing elements of the contracting process across NHS Trusts to ensure costing does not delay study set-up. From 1 April 2022, the NCVR will begin to replace the current time-consuming process whereby each NHS organisation negotiates with each commercial sponsor for every study in order to agree bespoke contract value. The programme will be monitored throughout implementation to ensure lessons can be learnt and the process improved to ensure it achieves its aims. The existing single cost and contract review model in Scotland and across the NIHR Patient Recruitment Centres in England will integrate with NCVR as it develops, supporting more effective UK alignment and efficiency
• the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) Network, with support from MHRA and HRA, will complete their pilot to set up Phase I oncology trials within 80 days of IRAS submission. Learning from this programme will be shared to enable improved set-up performance in other specialities
• RRG programme partners will identify and establish mechanisms to achieve efficient costing and contracting across other parts of the health system, supporting and enabling an increase in decentralised study designs and research taking place in primary care and community settings.
• DHSC and NHS England will lead a review of their current Excess Treatment Costs (ETC) process in England to review experiences of the policy and t explore how best we can support non-commercial research in the NHS

To make the UK offer easier to navigate:

• understand UK capabilities to deliver their study at all stages of the protocol development and delivery pathway
• connect with the right part of the system to help them at the right time
• access the network of expertise and resources available to create a package of support to deliver studies efficiently
• MHRA, NICE, AWTTC and SMC will work with partners across the UK to develop ILAP as an effective route into the UK research system, particularly through the development of a support toolkit
• the further development of IRAS will also provide navigation and signposting through the research journey, directing applicants to relevant guidance and advice. Through interfaces with other systems it will reduce burden and duplication

Research delivery enabled by data and digital tools

The UK’s health data offering is one of our global strengths due to our national health systems and cradle-to-grave healthcare records. Investing in data and digital tools, and making ethical use of them to support clinical research, for example by making it easier to recruit and follow-up participants, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the clinical research process. These tools also increase the resilience and sustainability of the healthcare system and reduce the burden on the NHS workforce.

• the data strategy for health and social care in England was published in June 2022
• up to £200 million committed to support NHS-led health research (subject to business case) was announced on 2 March 2022 to invest in health data infrastructure to support research and development in England, with parallel activity in the devolved governments

the NHS-Galleri trial demonstrated the potential for the use of healthcare data to support rapid, large scale recruitment to and delivery of clinical studies in the NHS. The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), led by NHS England, coordinated the design and set up of a 2 part, real-world demonstration project involving clinical data capture from NHS Digital and NIHR , and was a demonstrator for the ‘Find, Recruit and Follow-up’ service and NHS DigiTrials. The trial has already passed the halfway point in their recruitment of participants, with over 100,000 enrolled following the launch in autumn 2021

• each delivery partner funded as part of year one of the ‘Find Recruit and Follow-up’ service launched Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) of their services including: NHS DigiTrials, which has successfully facilitated 28 active trials through its service with a further 8 in application and 12 in pre-application; NIHR CRN launched its early stage ‘concierge’ service, with 2 companies and 4 data service providers as early users; and HRA, which agreed an approach to review by the Confidentiality Advisory Group which will enable more efficient study set up in future. In addition, the MHRA Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) has launched SPRINT (Speedy Recruitment into Trials ), a data-enabled research service that facilitates rapid feasibility and patient recruitment into industry sponsored phase 2 to 4 trials across the UK
• making use of real-world data (RWD) in and for clinical research is now a reality, supported by MHRA’s published guidance . This is the start of a series of guidelines to provide general points to consider for sponsors planning to conduct clinical research using RWD to support regulatory decision making

The next 3 years will see a revolution in how we use data across the health system. We will go further in utilising innovative data-driven methods and digital tools to transform the way we design, manage and deliver people-centred clinical research studies across the whole of the UK. We will achieve this by increasing the use of data and digital tools in recruitment and follow up, and by improving access to data via Trusted Research Environments (TREs: a type of Secure Data Environment, secure spaces where approved researchers can access rich, linked datasets) and through increased partnership working across the UK health data ecosystem.

We are very clear that the opportunity to use health data must be done in a way which is secure and trusted by members of the public, so governance and oversight processes must be both as efficient as possible and transparent, robust and trustworthy. Public trust and understanding of how data is being used to support research continues to be critical in developing appropriate activities. We will be working together to consider how to implement recommendations from the Goldacre Review , and ensuring that all work is supported by comprehensive public involvement and engagement activity.

To improve study planning, recruitment and follow-up:

• the Find, Recruit and Follow-up service will work across the 4 administrations to consider how activity can be expanded to include SAIL, Scottish Health Research Register, data infrastructure in Northern Ireland, NIHR BioResource and other key national data infrastructure, increasing opportunities for people to quickly and easily access research of relevance to them
• NHS DigiTrials and CPRD (via MHRA) will enable a significant increase in the scale of identification of people who match the eligibility criteria for specific studies in order that they can be given the opportunity to participate in research. They will also support increased use of routine healthcare data to streamline reporting of follow-up data, increasing predictability and releasing delivery capacity in the NHS
• in England, the Data for R&D Programme will invest in health data infrastructure for research and development, supported by comprehensive PPI and engagement throughout the programme, including embedded within its governance
• NIHR will invest in data and digital platforms such as Be Part of Research and NIHR BioResource, and provide the tools and support necessary to deliver virtual and decentralised studies. Increased interoperability between regulatory, NHS and NIHR platforms will enable further streamlining of processes for researchers
• in Wales, a digital recruitment programme will be developed through partnership between Health and Care Research Wales, SAIL Databank and the NHS Wales National Data Resource programme, to develop services that utilise data resources to drive research delivery. An Expert Working Group has been established to guide on the development of this ‘data for research’ programme. A pilot service has been funded to use SAIL data to provide rapid intelligence to aid placement of research trials in Wales to support most effective recruitment
• in Scotland, scoping work and stakeholder engagement is informing plans for developments to support increased use of NHS data and digital technology to accelerate clinical trial delivery, and for further development of the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE) to support recruitment to health research studies. We will continue to support the already established regional NHS Scotland controlled data safe havens (Trusted Research Environments) and their collaboration with the newly established Research Data Scotland to support use of data in research. We will also look for opportunities to support research and innovation as part of the forthcoming Scottish Government Data Strategy for Health and Social Care
• in Northern Ireland, the RRG Taskforce data and digital sub-group will lead work to prepare the NI data infrastructure to support digitally-enabled trials and participate in UK-wide initiatives such as the ‘Find, Recruit and Follow-up’ service.

To improve access to data and TREs:

• over the next 3 years NHS England will build upon foundational investments made in 2021 and 2022 in an interoperable network of TREs. At a national level, we will expand the scale, scope and capacity of the NHS Digital TRE to enable more users to have timely and secure access to a range of national datasets. At a regional level, we will develop a small network of regional ‘Sub National TREs’ in England, each covering a population of more than 5 million citizens and enabling access to near real time, multimodal data particularly amenable to the development of AI algorithms
• the Data for R&D Programme within NHS England will expand the ability for researchers to access a range of rich linked genomic datasets, creating linkages across the various health data systems so that genomic data can be used to support innovation and patients and service users can benefit from the provision of innovative genomic healthcare. The Genome UK Implementation Coordination Group Data Working Group will lead work looking to link genomic datasets from across the UK, and federate these where appropriate, as set out in the Genome UK: shared commitments for UK-wide implementation 2022 to 2025
• in Scotland, we will continue to support the already established regional NHS controlled TREs and their collaboration with the newly established Research Data Scotland to support use of data in research
• in Wales, we will continue to invest and grow the internationally recognised expertise and TRE available via the SAIL Databank, offering national population coverage and secure access to billions of person-based records
• in Northern Ireland, the Honest Broker Service and the more recently established Northern Ireland TRE will be supported to further develop secure access to data for research. This will sit alongside a sustained public dialogue and progression of the enactment of secondary uses legislation to facilitate data access for research in Northern Ireland.

Connecting these developments into a coherent UK offer will bring added benefit, therefore to unite plans:

• the RRG programme will ensure strategic co-ordination of this work across the UK clinical research ecosystem, supporting progress and ensuring alignment of initiatives, as well as identifying key areas where we can go further within the next 3 years to take steps towards fully realising our overarching vision
• an RRG data and digital subgroup will be established to enhance collaboration across the sector and ensure people across the whole of the UK benefit from research delivered using data and/or digitally-enabled approaches

Governance, detailed plans and ongoing updates

The UK Clinical Research RRG programme will oversee the delivery of this plan, continuing to work in partnership with stakeholders across the sector and regularly revisit the original vision to consider any further actions needed to deliver on the 10 year vision. In doing so, we will ensure that the NHS is able to tackle the healthcare challenges of the future enabling people across the UK and around the world to benefit from better health outcomes.

Given the scope of the work and the fast pace of change in clinical research, we will keep the specifics of this plan under review via the RRG programme and adapt delivery as needed. This flexibility will allow us to meet emerging challenges and ensure that the outcomes are aligned to the most pressing issues to realise our shared ambitions.

Progress will be measured by the RRG Programme Board and the Ministerially-chaired Oversight Group, ensuring we are delivering on the commitments set out in this plan and that they are having the intended impact on the UK clinical research system. Specific measures for success will be published on the RRG website later in 2022.

We will publish a Phase 3 plan in 2025 to 2026 to align with the next government spending review period. The Phase 3 plan will showcase our progress and lay out the next steps needed to ensure the vision is delivered.

Achievement of our plan will require action across the whole sector, but by building on the foundations of collaboration and partnership that we have created through RRG programme we can collectively work through current challenges and see this vision become a reality.

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Research Connect

Eight UKRI Councils Publish Detailed Strategic Delivery Plans for 2022-25

The plans set out how the individual councils will allocate their share of UKRI’s £7.9 billion annual budget.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has published detailed Strategic Delivery Plans for eight of its councils, setting out how the councils will deliver the wider UKRI mission and vision as well the activities they will undertake during the three-year spending period.

The plans relate to the UK’s seven research councils and Innovate UK. Research England’s budget allocation aligns with the academic year rather than financial year, and its strategic delivery plan will be published in the autumn.

The plans detail how the councils will deliver on UKRI’s five-year strategy, transforming tomorrow together , and implement the August 2022 UKRI corporate plan. Details of the individual council delivery plans are available here:

• Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• Economic and Social Research Council
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
• Innovate UK
• Medical Research Council
• Natural Environment Research Council
• Science and Technology Facilities Council .

The plans set out each council’s budget, what they will achieve over a three-year period, and the actions they will take in support of UKRI’s six overarching strategic objectives, namely:

• People and careers: making the UK the top destination for talented people and teams.
• Places: securing the UK’s position as a globally leading research and innovation nation with outstanding institutions, infrastructures, sectors, and clusters across the breadth of the UK.
• Ideas: advancing the frontiers of human knowledge and innovation by enabling the UK to seize opportunities from emerging research trends, multidisciplinary approaches and new concepts and markets.
• Innovation: delivering the government’s vision for the UK as an innovation nation, through concerted action of Innovate UK and wider UKRI.
• Impacts: focusing the UK’s world class science and innovation to target global and national challenges, create and exploit tomorrow’s technologies, and build the high-growth business sectors of the future.
• Underpinned by a strong organisation: making UKRI the most efficient, effective and agile organisation it can be.

Overarching details of the plans can be accessed at UKRI’s website .

(This report was the subject of a ResearchConnect Newsflash.)

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UKRI Delivery Plans

UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) strategic delivery plans set out the part each council will play in delivering the wider UKRI mission and vision published in their five-year  strategy . These strategic delivery plans sit alongside the UKRI corporate plan and provide the long-term vision for UKRI and detail on how they will deliver this over the medium and near-term.

Two-Page Summaries of 2022 to 2025 UKRI Delivery Plans

• AHRC Delivery Plan Summary
• BBSRC Delivery Plan Summary
• EPSRC Delivery Plan Summary
• ESRC Delivery Plan Summary
• MRC Delivery Plan Summary
• NERC Delivery Plan Summary
• STFC Delivery Plan Summary
• Innovate UK Strategic Delivery Plan Summary

2022 to 2025 Delivery Plans

Arts and Humanities Research Council

Arts and Humanities Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Economic and Social Research Council

Economic and Social Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Innovate UK

Innovate UK strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Medical Research Council

Medical Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Natural Environment Research Council

Natural Environment Research Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

Research England

Research England delivery plan 2019 (PDF, 4.9MB)

Science and Technology Facilities Council

Science and Technology Facilities Council strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

UK Research and Innovation

UK Research and Innovation delivery plan 2019 (PDF, 4MB)

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Chief Midwifery Officer for England’s strategic plan for research

Research and data can save lives and improve health care and helps deliver better outcomes. NHS trusts that are highly research active have better outcomes for patients across their services. All patients have better health outcomes in research active hospitals, even if individual patients are not part of research.

Clinical research embedded in the NHS creates a research-positive culture in which all health and care staff feel empowered to support and participate in clinical research as part of their job. This requires a sustainable and supported research workforce – which offers rewarding opportunities and exciting careers for all healthcare and research staff of all professional backgrounds. It also requires boosting areas of high research need and historical under-investment in groups such as midwives.

The Health and Care Act strengthened the duties on NHS England and integrated care systems (ICSs), which are now required to ‘facilitate and otherwise promote research’. To make ‘research everybody’s business’ this strategy sets out how embedding evidence and research in maternity policy and programmes and supporting under-represented groups such as midwives to lead research will support this vision.

Introduction

The vision for maternity and neonatal services is to provide safer and more personalised care for women and their families across England. It builds on the landmark Better Births Review , and Neonatal Critical Care Review to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan commitments to halve the number of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries by 2025, and the Core20PLUS5 intention to reduce healthcare inequalities at a local and system level. 

In 2023 the Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care will bring together actions required following the Reading the Signals , the Report of the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in East Kent, the Ockenden Review into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Foundation Trust, and the NHS Long-Term Plan and Maternity Transformation Programme deliverables. Further reports have set out the significant systematic inequalities that remain, both in outcomes and in the experiences for women from ethnic minorities and those living in social deprivation.

This Chief Midwifery Officer for England’s strategic plan for research will support NHS England commitments in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) UK Clinical Research Recovery, Resilience and Growth Programme and clinical research vision to support the healthcare workforce to embed research in the NHS. This includes ensuring that healthcare staff have the capacity and capability to incorporate research into their day-to-day activities; increasing knowledge and skills of NHS maternity leaders about different ways staff can get involved in research; increasing awareness of the value of research for safe and high quality care; and supporting frontline staff to lead delivery and use research in practice to improve care, experience and outcomes for women and babies and organisational performance.

This document sets out plans for maternity and perinatal research and strengthening careers for under-represented disciplines, such as midwives, as the backbone of maternity care over the next three years. Themes are shaped by policy and research priorities, and informed by colleagues across NHS England. It is aligned with the NIHR Research Strategy and NIHR Strategic Review of Training Council of Deans of Health , Royal College of Midwives , Royal College of Obstetricians plans, the Chief Nursing Officer’s (CNO) strategic plan for research , and draft NHS England Strategy for improving use of Evaluation.

The Chief Midwifery Officer for England’s strategic plan for research has three overarching themes:

• NHS England maternity policy and programmes are informed by the highest quality evidence and the voices of service users to close the loop between evidence, policy, programmes, and frontline practice.
• NHS England maternity policy and programmes embed evaluation to inform and assess programme delivery improvements and impact.
• The contribution of midwives to research and the evidence base is visible and valued, and supported by strengthening research capacity.

Implementation

NHS England maternity policy and programmes are informed by the highest quality evidence and voices of service users to close the loop between evidence, policy, programmes, and frontline practice:

NHS England maternity policy and programmes embed evaluation to inform and assess programme delivery improvements and impact:

The contribution of midwives to research and the evidence base is visible and valued, and supported by strengthening research capacity:

Governance and future actions

The CMiDO’s research team collaborate closely with colleagues across NHS England and the Maternity transformation directorate, CNO Research team, the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Group and the communications team in NHS England. The CMiDO and Maternity Transformation Advisory Groups will be consulted on specific issues.

The Chief Midwifery Officer for England’s strategic plan for research Steering Group will oversee delivery of this plan, monitor progress, and regularly review the ambition.

An external stakeholder group will ensure the steering group has access to advice, support, and guidance from a group of senior maternity and neonatal health and care professionals and managers (from NHS England regions, integrated care boards and provider organisations), academics, service users, and the public to inform delivery and embedding of the plan.

Summaries of progress to date and future plans will be published in CMidO and Maternity Transformation Programme Bulletins and the NHS Futures Collaboration Platforms.

Publication reference: PRN00293

Research Delivery Network

The RDN is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to enable the health and care system to attract, optimise and deliver research across England. It replaced the Clinical Research Network (CRN) on 1 October 2024.

We consist of 12 Regional Research Delivery Networks (RRDNs) and a Coordinating Centre (RDNCC), working together as one organisation with joint leadership.

We contribute to NIHR’s mission to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research.

Our vision, mission and purpose

Our vision is for the UK to be a global leader in the delivery of high quality research that is inclusive, accessible, and improves health and care.

Our mission is to enable the health and care system to attract, optimise and deliver research across England.

We have two primary purposes. To:

• support the successful delivery of high quality research, as an active partner in the research system
• increase capacity and capability of the research delivery infrastructure for the future
• enable more people to access health and social care research where they live
• support changing population needs by delivering a wider range of research and deliver research in areas of most need
• provide support to the health and care system through research
• encourage research to become a routine part of care
• support economic growth by attracting investment to the UK economy

Why we are changing from the CRN to the RDN

The research needs of the UK health and care system have evolved, and will continue to do so. Building on the successes of the CRN, we now need to enable more types of research to happen across a wider range of health and care settings, and to provide consistent services and support. 

To enable this, we operate as a single organisation, with shared responsibility for delivering consistent, collegiate and customer focused services across the RRDNs and RDNCC.  This will:

• ensure greater consistency across organisation structures including  job roles 
• provide new ways of working to ensure we maximise opportunities for people working across the RDN to contribute their expertise and experience

We focus on effective support for the whole RDN Portfolio , rather than individual studies. Our support includes building strategic capacity and capability to ensure the health and care system is able to deliver all types of research now and in the future. 

We will put a stronger emphasis on continuous improvement, learning and value for money in every part of RDN. This will ensure our services continue to meet the changing needs of our customers and the UK health and care system over time. 

We will build a sustainable, adaptable organisation that is fit for the future and well placed to deliver on the vision for the UK to be a global leader in the delivery of high quality research. We will ensure our research is inclusive, accessible, and improves the health and care for people across England and the UK.

More information

Research Delivery Network website

Find out more about our performance and our annual statistics . 

STFC strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025

This foreword was written by Professor Mark Thomson, the Executive Chair at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), in September 2022.

STFC is a world-leading research and innovation organisation, with a unique role within UKRI. We fund research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astronomy, space science and particle astrophysics.

We also build and operate many of the UK’s largest multidisciplinary research facilities at our national research and innovation campuses, which are essential to delivering UKRI’s collective ambitions.

Our fundamental research seeks to understand the universe from the largest astronomical scales to the tiniest constituents of matter, and creates impact on a very tangible, human scale.

Our funding has enabled the UK to play a leading role in some of the most fundamental discoveries of the last 50 years, including the Higgs boson at CERN and gravitational waves.

These profound and exciting discoveries have changed the way we understand the universe with the potential to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects.

We are also one of the largest science delivery organisations in the UK with over 2,500 staff in scientific, engineering, and technical roles. This depth of expertise is central to operating the UK’s large-scale multidisciplinary facilities.

STFC national laboratories host a critical mass of expertise in key technologies including:

• artificial intelligence (AI)
• supercomputing
• quantum computing

We are committed to increasing our investment in early career technical staff through expanding our successful apprentice scheme with the aim of developing a pipeline of skills for the UK.

I greatly welcome the opportunities that arise from our UKRI strategy and key government strategy documents such as:

• the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy
• the Innovation Strategy
• the Levelling up White Paper
• the first National Space Strategy

STFC is well placed to play an important role in delivering these strategies. For example:

• our grant-funded science programme utilises major research infrastructures around the globe and is almost entirely international, placing us in a key position to deliver science diplomacy elements of the Integrated Review
• the large-scale national facilities we build and operate deliver internationally competitive multidisciplinary capabilities to the science base across UKRI and for industry; the expertise and facilities within STFC national laboratories provide key delivery capability for the National Space Strategy
• the ecosystems of clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that we support at our major research and innovation campuses play a key role in the innovation strategy and levelling up

This strategic delivery plan presents our main goals for the next 3 years covering new initiatives in our fundamental science programme, new investments in facilities in STFC national laboratories, and our ambitions to grow our links to business and industry at our research and innovation campuses.

I believe this document presents an incredibly exciting plan reflecting the opportunities for STFC to contribute towards delivering our clear UKRI strategy .

What we will achieve

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) mission is to discover the secrets of the universe, to develop advanced technologies, and to innovate to solve real-world challenges.

Our vision is for the UK to be a world-leader in fundamental science, with outstanding large-scale national facilities and research and innovation campuses that are internationally recognised as beacons of excellence.

To deliver our vision we will:

• provide high-quality strategic leadership for UK frontier research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astronomy, space science and particle astrophysics
• actively position STFC national laboratories and large-scale facilities as world-class centres of excellence in multidisciplinary science, engineering and technology
• provide effective leadership of the UK participation in world-leading international facilities, championing and promoting UK interests and maximising the scientific and industrial returns to the UK
• catalyse the development of next generation technologies and support the mechanisms to exploit them
• exploit STFC national laboratories, campuses and science programme as an interlinked ecosystem for innovation in science and technology, accelerating commercialisation and bringing competitive advantage for the UK as well as broader industrial, societal, and economic impact
• provide campus-wide leadership to ensure that Harwell and Sci-Tech Daresbury are national beacons of excellence in science and technology that maximise the benefits to our academic, industrial, and regional stakeholders
• deliver a world-class training programme to develop the skills at all levels needed by UK research and industry to maximise UK leadership in frontier research, leading edge science, technology, engineering and data science, and new disruptive technologies
• maximise the impact of our inspirational scientific programme to engage the public in science and technology and encourage the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects
• space, defence and security
• application of quantum technologies

Our vision and mission underpin the prosperity of the UK as a science superpower. As part of UKRI we will deliver core components of the government’s Innovation Strategy , National Space Strategy , Integrated Review , the National artificial intelligence (AI) Strategy , and the UK Life Sciences Vision , as well as pushing the boundaries of digital technology, AI and quantum technology.

We work with the other councils of UKRI to deliver the 6 objectives of the UKRI strategy . STFC is unique in being both a funder and a science delivery organisation. Consequently, our high-level strategic aims often contribute to multiple strands of the UKRI strategy .

Our purpose

To discover the secrets of the universe, develop advanced technologies, and innovate to solve real-world challenges.

Our principles for change

We will embed the principles of diversity, resilience, connectivity and engagement across all our work, to drive change and create the conditions for an outstanding research and innovation system.

Our strategic objectives

Our strategic objectives provide the framework for how we will achieve our vision and realise our principles, through the following:

World-class people and careers

Training a pipeline of skilled engineers, technicians and scientists to meet the increasing demand of research and industry, and inspiring future generations to study and work in research and innovation.

World-class places

Developing and deploying world-class national multidisciplinary facilities, leading the UK’s participation in international infrastructures, and growing a thriving ecosystem for academic and industrial users and partners at the Harwell and Sci-Tech Daresbury Campuses.

World-class ideas

Championing UK global leadership in research to understand the universe, its fundamental constituents, and their interactions and developing next-generation technologies.

World-class innovation

Accelerating end-to-end innovation and stimulating business growth through access to our research, cutting-edge facilities and laboratories and network of experts, companies and private partners at our campuses and clusters.

World-class impacts

Exploiting highly technical expertise to develop transformative technologies to target national priorities in space, quantum, net zero, computing, digital and security and create industrial, societal and economic impact.

A world-class organisation

Supported by a world-class organisation: operate a modern, sustainable, and effective organisation that supports the development, safety and wellbeing of diverse staff working across the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) activities, from governance and administration to the building and running of large, complex machinery with biological, chemical, electrical and radiation hazards.

Objective 1: world-class people and careers

STFC supports around 2,000 early career scientists at universities (PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and fellows) working on some of the most profound questions in physics.

Our researchers are partners in the most ambitious scientific endeavours ever undertaken, from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to the largest and most powerful ground-based and space-based telescopes that will view the universe with unprecedented precision.

The majority of our fundamental research programme is international in nature, providing early career researchers with the opportunity to participate in large collaborations working with the world’s most ambitious scientific research infrastructures and international teams.

We employ 2,500 scientific and technical staff working on some of the most technologically advanced research infrastructure on the globe, including providing support for over 10,000 researchers per year from industry and the wider UKRI scientific community who access our national facilities.

Our technical expertise and inspiring facilities provide a unique opportunity to train the next generation of engineers and technologists, directly addressing critical skills needs across a range of strategic areas identified in the government’s:

• research and development roadmap
• Innovation Strategy
• Integrated Review

Delivering world-class training

We aim to deliver a world-class training programme to develop the skills at all levels needed by UK research and industry to maximise UK leadership in:

• frontier research
• leading edge science
• technology, engineering and data science
• new disruptive technologies

Through leveraging our investments in data-intensive science, analysis and instrumentation, we are in a unique position to address the national skills shortages in the key engineering and computing disciplines critical to new and emerging markets, such as space, quantum, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital.

We will work across UKRI to make the best use of our capability, spanning all levels from apprentices to PhD researchers, as we transition to greater collective working across our talent initiatives, ensuring that the specific needs of our doctoral students are met and links to industry through our Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) are strengthened.

We will capitalise on the expertise in STFC national laboratories to deliver a step-change in our technical and engineering skills pipeline, through the new STFC skills factory, building on our existing award-winning early career and apprentice schemes and informed through engagement with industrial partners.

• increase our support for early-career university researchers working on our core scientific mission to discover the secrets of the universe, by increasing funding for early career researchers through an uplift to the budget for consolidated grants
• initiate phase 1 of the STFC skills factory, investing £2.5 million to more than double the intake of apprentices working at our world-leading facilities by 2025, we aim to develop a pipeline of skilled engineers and technicians in strategically important sectors
• implement the Technician Commitment delivery plan, to highlight the importance of technicians internally and externally
• invest £2.5 million in CDTs in data intensive science to support the next generation of researchers and innovators and offer mentorship and industrial placements
• run structured training programmes in AI for over 5,000 individuals in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and industry, through the Hartree National Centre for digital innovation. This will provide training in the emerging technologies and tools in the rapidly evolving sector of high-performance computing-enabled AI, augmenting Turing 2.0 activities

Support for skills at all levels in research and industry

STFC’s unique, inspirational facilities that support the UK’s research and development community to deliver world-class research, provide the ideal training ground for technicians through to research fellows in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related skills.

STFC is an innovative and supportive employer, committed to continuously improving its approach and embedding a culture where the benefits of diversity are celebrated.

• signed the Technician Commitment, to increase the recognition, support and development of the wide range of roles in the research and innovation ecosystem
• developed a graduate scheme for engineering and computing disciplines, now recruiting over 75 graduates each year
• built an award-winning apprenticeship scheme, recruiting more than 120 new apprentices over the last 4 years. In 2022 the scheme was awarded ‘We Invest in Apprentices’ gold accreditation from Investors in People

We will scale-up this activity through investment in phase 1 of the skills factory.

Engaging the next generation

We aim to maximise the impact of our inspirational scientific programme to engage the public in science and technology and encourage the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

As part of UKRI’s people, culture and talent portfolio, we will help foster a world class research and innovation system by attracting, developing, and retaining people from all backgrounds to build on our existing strengths and to meet future challenges.

STFC’s frontier science discoveries – including images of distant galaxies, observing the gravitational waves from black holes colliding and new discoveries at CERN – all have the potential to capture people’s imagination and inspire future generations to study and work in STEM subjects.

We aim to inspire the nation to increasingly value and engage with scientific discovery through the captivating nature of our frontier science, engineering, and technology.

Our public engagement activities play a crucial role in supporting the UKRI public engagement strategy to grow the UK’s STEM talent pool, helping young people and their families to see STEM as exciting, relevant and diverse.

We aim to strengthen the take-up of STEM subjects in hard-to-reach groups to increase the diversity of the future UK science and engineering community and promote exciting science stories in the media.

• prioritise our Wonder initiative of public engagement activities that target young people and their families in relatively economically disadvantaged areas, and from cultures that are traditionally under-represented in STEM subjects. We are aiming for at least 40% participation in our engagement programme from these groups
• target schools in underrepresented communities to increase the diversity of applications to STFC’s apprenticeship and other training schemes
• invest £4.2 million in public engagement, expanding our reach and impact by utilising our early-career staff, including apprentices and graduate intakes, to deliver over 1,500 days of direct community-focused activities
• continue to fund and incentivise the academic communities we support to develop and participate in outreach and public engagement to maximise the wider value of the science that we fund
• run a major open week at each of our research and innovation campuses, with the aim of showcasing our facilities and science to over 20,000 members of the public

Case study: Wonder initiative

Beginning in 2018, Wonder is a long-term commitment to changing how STFC’s public engagement activities run, with an emphasis on working with, rather than delivering to, communities.

This initiative targets communities from the 40% most economically disadvantaged areas of the UK (as determined by national indices of multiple deprivation data), particularly young people aged 8 to 14, their families and carers.

Research in the sector has shown that areas of greater economic deprivation have fewer access to science engagement opportunities and as a result, fewer young people are interested in careers in science and technology.

Focusing our work in these areas, we hope to inspire and involve more young people with our science and technology.

Wonder acts across STFC’s entire programme, including public engagement grant holders, national partnerships and the national laboratories public engagement programme.

Initial evaluation findings indicate the number of individuals from Wonder communities (as a proportion of the total audience) reached by STFC public engagement has increased since the initiative was started.

Objective 2: world-class places

STFC’s scientific mission is delivered through very large research infrastructures in the UK and around the globe. We operate STFC national laboratories in 5 regional sites across the UK:

• RAL at Harwell in Oxfordshire
• Daresbury Laboratory at Sci-Tech Daresbury in the Liverpool City Region
• the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh
• Boulby Underground Laboratory in the North East of England
• Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire

STFC national laboratories host key national capabilities, including UKRI’s largescale multidisciplinary research infrastructure.

Our research and innovation campuses, linked to our 2 largest STFC national laboratory sites, underpin many research areas and technologies highlighted in the government’s Innovation Strategy , providing internationally competitive sovereign research and innovation capability.

We also play a central role in developing international collaborative research infrastructures, securing access to leading-edge facilities for UK researchers and the best scientific return on investment from our international subscriptions.

This generates industrial return for UK business, and exercises soft scientific diplomatic influence highlighted in the government’s Integrated Review . Our role in ensuring the UK’s position in these world-leading research infrastructures is an essential component of the UK being a science superpower on the global stage.

International research infrastructures

We aim to provide effective leadership of the UK participation in world-leading international facilities, championing and promoting UK interests and maximising the scientific and industrial returns to the UK. The majority of our frontier research programmes rely on global cooperation and collaboration.

Our research footprint spans the globe, including:

• CERN in Europe
• the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) in Australia and South Africa
• the world’s large telescopes in Chile
• LBNF Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the US

On behalf of UKRI, we fund the UK subscriptions to international multidisciplinary facilities outside the UK:

• Institut Laue Langevin (ILL)
• European Spallation Source (ESS)
• European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (EuXFEL)
• the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)

From 2022 we also manage the funding for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

Working closely with BEIS, we provide UK leadership in international policy governance of large international facilities.

We provide strategic and technical leadership within the governance structures and develop long-term strategies for our international investments, with the aim of maximising scientific and diplomatic benefits and further increasing UK influence on the global scientific stage.

• enhance UK scientific links globally, initially targeting new scientific collaborations with India, Japan and the US. Initially this will include funding the Hyper-Kamiokande Neutrino experiment in Japan and the US Simons Observatory, located in Chile
• deliver the UK technical contributions in major projects as part of our frontier research programmes, investing more than £40 million including the ATLAS and CMS upgrade at CERN and the PIP-II accelerator at FermiLab
• invest £90 million over 3 years in the construction of the SKAO working with our co-hosts in Australia and South Africa and other international partners, to ensure that construction progresses according to plan, ensuring scientific success and optimising the economic and industrial return to the UK
• provide UK expertise and leadership within the governance structures of the international facilities we fund, including CERN and the ESS
• publish a new strategy for UK engagement with CERN, delivered in partnership with BEIS, focusing on maximising the benefits to the UK of our membership of CERN, and build close ministry-to-ministry and agency-to-agency partnerships with major European scientific nations and beyond
• develop and deliver a plan for increased investment in the EuXFEL in Germany to align with UK community needs and technological expertise within STFC and wider UKRI

Maintaining our national facilities as centres of excellence

We aim to actively position STFC national laboratories and large-scale facilities as world- class centres of excellence in multidisciplinary science, engineering and technology across the whole of the UK.

Through the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, the Central Laser Facility and Diamond Light Source we provide unique national capabilities and expertise for academic and industrial researchers, addressing a diverse range of research from advanced materials and battery technologies to cutting-edge life sciences.

Our facilities provide the tools that enable the UK’s thriving research and innovation communities to address the most pressing industrial and societal challenges and support the government’s Innovation Strategy.

We will strengthen the technical capabilities at Daresbury Laboratory in the north west of England and engage with international partners and local industry to bring a major internationally funded project to the north east, contributing to the delivery of the government’s levelling up ambitions.

We will deliver key multidisciplinary projects using cross-UKRI funding, including from the Infrastructure Fund, to:

• commence investment in the £500 million Diamond II upgrade programme (£81.5 million over the next 3 years) that will deliver a world-leading fourth generation synchrotron light source, providing up to 100 times the brightness of the existing machine, future-proofing the UK’s national synchrotron programme for the next 20 years
• commence investment in the £73.5 million ISIS Endeavour programme (with £3.4 million investment over the first 3 years) that, over the course of the decade, will deliver 4 new instruments and 5 upgraded instruments to provide new scientific capability and capacity to support advances in personalised medicine and bioscience, energy storage, clean growth and advanced materials
• commence construction of the £59.7 million ‘Vulcan 2020’ 20 PetaWatt laser (with £19.8 million investment over the first 3 years), a new high power world-class sovereign laser, providing unique capabilities in civil research and national security. We will also invest £17.2 million in the Hilux project (£8.6 million over the first 3 years) to upgrade the Ultra and Artemis laser facilities to 100kHz operation, enabling femto-second resolution imaging
• deliver new capabilities at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), including the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and the installation of the laser system in the new Extreme Photonics Applications Centre (with £35.8 million from the Strategic Priorities Fund)
• complete the Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA phase 2) project and finalise it as a 250 MeV electron beam scientific and industrial user facility. We will invest £4 million in the FEBE laser for CLARA providing a new facility to probe the interactions of high-energy electrons with light
• work with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the University of Liverpool and Rosalind Franklin Institute, to invest £2.6 million from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund in the technical design and business case for the Relativistic Ultrafast Electron Diffraction and Imaging Centre. We will also invest £2 million over the next 3 years to develop the specification and costs for a pioneering, ion-based radiobiology research facility
• complete the design study for a greatly expanded underground science facility in the north east, with the potential to host a major international science infrastructure, such as a next generation dark matter experiment (with £2.8 million from the Infrastructure Fund)

Case study: STFC technology drives transformation in structural biology

In the last decade, building on design techniques developed for the Large Hadron Collider, engineers in STFC’s technology department working with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge delivered a breakthrough in cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) through producing high resolution cameras that survive the harsh microscope radiation environment.

This pioneering work greatly enhanced the performance of Cryo-EM systems and enabled their software to reconstruct the precise molecular structures of an ever-growing list of new biomolecules transforming structural biology and aiding drug development.

In partnership with EPSRC and the Rosalind Franklin Institute, STFC engineers are actively developing the next generation of camera optimised for lower energy electrons that are less damaging to the valuable biological samples.

This will continue to expand the impact and capacity of the technique and will have huge benefits for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals.

Case study: driving innovation-led growth across the UK through clusters anchored to our campuses

The campuses lie at the heart of STFC’s contribution to the government’s Innovation Strategy and contribute to the prosperity of the UK.

Clusters are a strategic approach to stimulate innovation and productivity growth in sectors and key technologies across the campuses including space, digital, health and life sciences, quantum and energy.

Harwell Campus hosts 100 businesses in its Space cluster, 80 businesses in its energy tech cluster and 74 businesses in its health tech cluster.

Sci-Tech Daresbury hosts 44 businesses in its north west HealthTec cluster, 6 businesses in its Digital Tech cluster and 4 businesses in its recently launched (May 2022) north west Space cluster.

Over the next 3 years we will further enhance the impact of clusters on the economy and society by:

• driving connectivity within and between different clusters across UK regions to facilitate information exchange and strengthen the competitiveness of emerging and strategic technologies
• operating dynamic schemes to stimulate new ideas from the diverse communities and sectors within and between our campuses to boost the development and adoption of disruptive technologies to improve productivity
• attracting and supporting a balanced cohort of innovative start-up, scale-up and mature businesses on our campuses and drive cluster growth
• building and incentivising strategic partnerships with public, private and academic stakeholders, and local and regional leadership, to ensure a joined-up approach to delivering a shared ambition for clusters

Next generation world-class capabilities

We will ensure the UK has a clear long-term plan for the next generation of large-scale national facilities that will provide the UK with a series of world leading capabilities through to 2050 and beyond.

In parallel we will make progress towards transitioning to net zero in the development, running and maintenance of our world-leading facilities with the aim of transitioning to net zero operation of our facilities and laboratories by 2040.

• invest £3.2 million to deliver the conceptual design and scientific case for the UK hosting a world-leading second generation X-ray Free Electron Laser, either as a national capability or as a UK- hosted international project
• invest £5 million (with £3.9 million in the next 3 years) in the conceptual design for the ISIS-2 upgrade of the neutron spallation source infrastructure, with the aim of retaining the UK’s sovereign world-leading capability into the 2040s and beyond
• finalise our roadmap for transitioning to net zero operation. All our new building projects will aim to reach BREEAM1 Outstanding targeting carbon reduction
• explore and potentially invest in commercial options for large-scale provision of solar power from local solar farms to our sites
• develop invest-to-save opportunities for infrastructure on our science estate

World-class research and innovation campuses

We aim to provide campus-wide leadership to ensure that Harwell and Sci-Tech Daresbury are national beacons of excellence in science and technology that maximise the benefits to our academic, industrial, and regional stakeholders.

These campuses are internationally leading locations for high-tech businesses to grow and create high-value jobs, attracting inward investments and global talent to contribute to the UK’s prosperity and the goal of becoming the world’s most innovative economy.

Our campuses already support over 7,900 high-tech jobs and host around 370 organisations from start-ups to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), large-scale facilities and international corporates in a thriving ecosystem focused on clusters of excellence.

We will continue to ensure the Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell Campuses are amongst the best places in the UK to start a high-tech business by delivering integrated business incubation and scale-up, facilities and access to finance for companies in emerging sectors and markets.

Through catalysing new, and growing existing, clusters of businesses and research organisations anchored around our facilities and technology hubs on our campuses, we aim to develop an ecosystem of cross-sector collaboration and multidisciplinary approaches to solve business challenges and accelerate innovation.

• rapidly scale up the accommodation space for our innovation cluster at Daresbury, through our joint venture vehicle, Sci-Tech Daresbury, seeking private sector investment to deliver on the levelling up agenda and progressing towards the target of 10,000 jobs on campus. In addition, we will develop a business case for the digital accelerator at Sci-Tech Daresbury and explore different funding models with our private sector partners
• work with the Liverpool City Region Innovation Board and the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Innovation group to maximise the regional impact of our Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell Campuses
• deliver a new scale-up innovation facility and the UK Space Gateway, through private- sector investment
• leverage the Life Sciences Opportunity Zone stages to attract new opportunities for inward investment at Harwell and Sci-Tech Daresbury
• accelerate adoption of modern computing techniques in UK businesses of all sizes, by fully exploiting the Hartree Centre’s position as a world-leading, industry-focused computing centre, bringing together high-performance computing, AI solutions, academia, and industry partners
• develop a new quantum computing cluster of innovative businesses at Harwell, using the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) as an anchor institute, focusing on technology development and the future UK supply chain for quantum computing

Case study: Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) benefits UK industry

The SKAO is set to be the world’s largest radio telescope. It will discover the evolution of the early universe, exploring some the earliest processes in fashioning galaxies such as our own Milky Way.

As one of the largest scientific endeavours in history, the SKAO brings together more than 500 engineers and 1,000 scientists in more than 20 countries.

The SKAO will bring economic benefits, through significant engagement with UK industry. Hosting the Headquarters at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, will create a hub of excellence in north west England, creating jobs and providing training opportunities.

To date, 7 contracts have been awarded to UK organisations, worth €36.1 million, as part of the SKAO’s obligation to seek an equitable return of 70% per each country’s original contribution to the capital cost of construction.

Objective 3: world-class ideas

STFC aims to provide high-quality strategic leadership for UK frontier research in:

• particle physics
• nuclear physics
• space science
• particle astrophysics

We champion UK global leadership in research to understand the universe, addressing some of the most profound questions in science from the largest astronomical scales down to its fundamental constituents.

Our frontier research drives the development of ground-breaking technologies to deliver new capabilities. For example, developments in imaging sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputing and quantum technologies have the power to transform our economy through down-stream technology transfer.

Similarly, the algorithms and methods generated by work at the forefront of theoretical physics have wider application.

We fund this research through both academia and the large and unique capabilities we host across STFC national laboratory departments in the UK that cannot easily be delivered within university settings. These include:

• RAL Particle Physics Department
• STFC’s scientific computing and technology departments

This critical mass of expertise, totalling 1,067 staff, delivers technological and computational solutions across UKRI.

Our investments in major scientific projects are long-term, often spanning multiple decades and are delivered through managed strategic programmes, rather than short-term responsive funding.

The international nature of our programme requires collaboration with funding agencies in other countries. It also requires balancing scientific exploitation, construction project funding and research and development to ensure long-term resilience.

Leveraging our international investments

We manage membership subscriptions to international organisations and the funding for our national programme that leverages the value from membership.

We aim to effectively leverage our large investments in CERN, European Southern Observatory and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) investment in the European Space Agency (ESA) scientific programmes by providing the right level of investment in our frontier research.

• continue to manage and fund our existing commitments in our frontier research programmes, providing funding of £226 million over 3 years, increasing on the approximately 390 full time equivalent researchers currently supported by our grants
• increase investment by £19 million over the next 3 years in our frontier research programmes through year-on-year increases to consolidated grant funding for science exploitation, increasing numbers of early-career researchers and better leveraging value from our annual £213 million subscription investment in international facilities
• formalise our partnership with the US-led Rubin Observatory in Chile, to include the development and operation in the UK of an advanced data handling and analysis centre focused on maximising impact from this new multi-purpose, transient-survey observatory
• deliver the UK share of the CERN LHC computing requirements in the most cost-effective manner, providing funding of up to £22 million to the tier 1 ‘Grid for Particle Physics’ and the SwiftHEP software optimisation programme
• initiate the first £1.1 million funding of a planned £49.4 million investment in the 10-year LHCb 2030+ project at CERN, which will explore intriguing hints for new physics seen in the current LHC data
• deliver the UK’s £9 million contribution to the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory upgrade, a ground-based gravitational wave observatory in the US
• complete our Particle Physics Strategic Review and develop a 10-year plan to respond to its recommendations and to those identified in the European Strategy for Particle Physics

Case study: global collaboration to push the frontier of knowledge in astronomy

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched in December 2021, is the largest, most powerful telescope ever sent into space. Successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST can look further back in time than any other telescope, to just 400 million years after the Big Bang.

The first images from the telescope, released in July 2022, are the most detailed images ever captured of our universe.

The UK’s main contribution to JWST is the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), 1 of 4 major scientific instruments on the observatory. Through the UK Space Agency and STFC, the UK has invested almost £20 million in the development phase of MIRI.

Of the first images from the telescope, most include images or spectra captured by MIRI, providing a new and unique view of the universe.

STFC’s UK Astronomy Technical Centre led the European consortium and overall design for MIRI. RAL Space was responsible for overall thermal engineering and instrument assembly, integration, testing and verification.

Following launch, scientists, engineers, and astronomers from UK ATC and RAL Space were actively involved in the complex commissioning process.

Use of the telescope by UK scientists will address key questions in astronomy and ensure UK scientists remain at the forefront of global space science research. 40 UK institutions and around 180 UK scientists have won telescope time in its first year of operation.

Case study: UK scientists work as part of international collaboration to challenge our understanding of the physical world

In 2021, UK physicists from the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN announced new results which suggest hints of a violation of the Standard Model of particle physics.

The Standard Model of particle physics predicts that beauty quarks should decay into muons or electrons in equal measure. This is known as lepton flavour universality. But the new result suggests that this may not be happening.

This tantalising hint at new and unexplained physics demonstrates the importance of the LHC in exploring nature at its most fundamental level.

If a violation of lepton flavour universality were confirmed, it would require a new physical process, such as the existence of new fundamental particles or interactions.

It is now for the LHCb collaboration to further verify their results by collating and analysing more data, to see if the evidence for some new phenomena remains. Recent and future upgrades to the LHC mean faster data collection from a more powerful particle accelerator.

Strategic investment in our science areas

Through our investments we ensure that UK-funded researchers remain at the forefront of global pioneering discoveries.

We continue to provide strategic leadership and identify the brightest ideas and highest-priority areas for investment in our frontier science and facilities, and will work across UKRI through a new interdisciplinary responsive mode.

• provide national leadership in the scientific return to the UK from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) through UK ATC’s central role in the calibration and operation of Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and engagement with STFC Webb fellows
• provide new funding for blue-skies research and development related to our scientific programmes, rising to £2.5 million per year by 2024, with the aim of seeding genuinely new technological developments for down-stream commercialisation funding
• significantly enhance the science capability of the US-led Simons Observatory, exploring the microwave signature of the early universe, using UKRI Infrastructure and STFC funds. This £12.6 million investment will allow UK scientists to be in the vanguard of discoveries from this major new infrastructure
• selecting and investing in a national collaboration to deliver a SKA Regional Centre in the UK focused on advanced data handling and analysis tools in this global partnership radioastronomy infrastructure
• complete and deliver to the Very Large Telescope the new Multi-Object Optical and Near Infrared Spectrograph instrument, which is currently being constructed at the UK-ATC in Edinburgh
• complete new instrumentation for the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes, operated by STFC in the Canary Islands, including the commissioning in 2022 of the new WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer instrument for the William Herschel Telescope
• invest £2.3 million (through the UKRI infrastructure fund) in the early-stage detector development for the Electron-Ion Collider at Brookhaven in the US
• invest £15 million, in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), to complete the first phase of the Quantum Technology for Fundamental Physics programme, explore opportunities for international collaboration, and plan for the next phase
• commence full-scale production of wire-sensing planes and data acquisition system for the £25 million UK contribution to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the US
• maintain our strategic partnership with the Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology hosted by the University of Durham, where the institute grant has recently been renewed

Objective 4: world-class innovation

STFC’s unique place in the UK landscape of end-to-end innovation contributes to achieving the government’s ambition for the UK to spend 2.4% of GDP on research and development and delivering the Innovation Strategy .

The academic community we support works on some of the most technologically challenging projects ever conceived.

Our cutting-edge research and world-leading large-scale facilities require ground-breaking, innovative technology solutions.

Within our facilities and STFC national laboratories, we provide access to world-leading facilities, deep technical expertise, shared laboratories, active business incubation and other business support to help businesses to thrive in an increasingly competitive national and global marketplace.

Exploiting discoveries

We aim to catalyse the development of next generation technologies and support the mechanisms to exploit them.

STFC’s world-class technical and engineering capabilities in the technology-focused departments at STFC national laboratories sites, complements the capabilities in our partner universities, enabling us to deliver on the key technologies highlighted in the Innovation Strategy , while also capitalising on the UK’s leadership in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI). These 2 strands come together in the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI).

HNCDI at Daresbury Laboratory is a new collaborative programme with IBM, which will enable government and businesses to acquire the skills, knowledge and technical capability required to adopt digital technologies, such as:

• data analytics

Building on these capabilities, we aim to develop, identify, and translate advanced and disruptive technologies from our fundamental research and STFC national laboratories, including:

• quantum technologies
• space technology
• advanced sensors
• high-performance computing
• simplify our academic-focused commercialisation programmes into a single £2.5 million per year scheme by 2024
• invest £6 million in a new novel detector systems initiative within our technology department, targeting applications for our science programme, the space sector, and multidisciplinary facilities, leveraging our extensive industrial links and networks to identify ways to exploit these detectors in wider markets
• invest £3 million in proof-of-concept funding for our own in-house programmes to stimulate intellectual property (IP) from STFC national laboratories to provide a pipeline of innovation for licensing to UK industry and to spin-out new ventures
• work with Innovate UK to maximise the impact of our initiatives and develop a more integrated pipeline of technology development, commercialisation and scale-up including further developing Analysis for Innovators and Bridging Innovators
• fully exploit the £132 million investment in the HNCDI including the establishment of at least 3 regional SME hubs across the UK, delivery of at least 100 explorative technology demonstrator projects with UK companies and government departments, and engagement of over 150 SMEs with focused support and skills development relating to the most appropriate emerging technologies and tools in AI enabled by high performance computing

Case study: supporting spin-outs to capitalise on our inventive capacity

STFC national laboratories, research programmes, expertise, support initiatives and collaborative culture combine to create a permissive environment in which innovation flourishes, and this plays a key role in mobilising the UK’s inventive capacity.

STFC protects and exploits the IP generated from its national laboratories, supports new inventors, provides proof-of-concept funding, funds the exchange of knowledge from academia into industry, and transfers knowledge and technology to industry and commercial applications.

Through UK universities, STFC funding has generated 39 spin-out companies (2007 to 2022). Research conducted in STFC national laboratories has generated 22 spin-out companies (2002 to 2022), attracting £98 million of third-party investment and creating 294 highly skilled jobs.

The economic impact of 40 of the spin-out companies from STFC national laboratories and UK universities has been estimated over their lifecycles to 2020 at approximately £230 million gross value added, representing a return on investment of £6.47 per £1 of STFC investment, or £4.90 per £1 invested if all public sector grants are taken into account.

Accelerating commercialisation

We aim to exploit STFC national laboratories, campuses and science programme as an interlinked ecosystem for innovation in science and technology, accelerating commercialisation and bringing competitive advantage for the UK as well as broader industrial, societal, and economic impact.

Our business development team supports and coordinates the translation of STFC technology and research to a commercial application. Creating IP is an important and integral part of our role and it is our duty to exploit IP for the economic benefit of the UK.

We aim to maximise STFC’s impact on economic growth in the UK through publicly recognised and effective commercialisation of cutting-edge technologies and the unique solutions arising from our research.

We are committed to supporting end-to-end innovation and stimulating business growth through securing private sector investment to significantly scale-up our business incubation space at Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell.

• work with Innovate UK and partners across the research and innovation system to bring additional financial contributions to support STFC’s strategy on innovation through innovative funding schemes and the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S)
• provide support for commercialisation of research and technologies from STFC, leading to at least 30 new commercial licences and 3 new spinouts
• support flexible funding to institutions through the Impact Accelerator Accounts (IAA) while working across UKRI to harmonise the scheme
• capture and assess the impacts of our funding for research commercialisation through the principles and indicators set in the UKRI research commercialisation monitoring framework
• develop a transformative approach to upskilling UK industry informed by our skills strategies for Sci-Tech Daresbury and Harwell Campuses
• work with Brookfield (our private sector joint venture partner at Harwell) to develop the business case for a new ‘Incubation Accelerator at Harwell’, with the aim of incubating 20 additional companies each year, contributing to achieving the campus jobs target

Providing industry access to our world-leading capabilities

We are committed to facilitating the exchange of knowledge between academia and industry and providing a clearly communicated offering to UK industry for accessing our skills and world-leading international and national facilities.

• work with the Department for International Trade to systematically publicise tendering opportunities at international facilities to UK companies and support them through the process
• provide guidance and technical support to UK businesses to co-design and develop new technologies for world-leading facilities and fully leverage the economic benefits from international
• leverage engagement with our innovation clusters to attract businesses at different stages of maturity to locate on our campuses and attract inward investment (see ‘World-Class Places’ for priorities for our clusters of excellence)

Objective 5: world-class impacts

We work across disciplines as one UKRI and with our external partners, using our expertise to target national priorities and transformative technologies, such as:

Harnessing the scale and distinctiveness of our research, technologies, and facilities, we can make a vital contribution towards addressing emerging national and global challenges and collectively delivering UKRI’s strategic themes, government and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) priorities.

As a large public-sector organisation, our staff provide a critical mass of expertise across a diverse spread of technical specialisms including:

• advanced computing
• novel quantum and silicon sensors
• accelerator construction
• laser and plasma physics

This vital capacity both supports our science programme and national facilities and provides a significant resource to support wider government priorities. Working with our partners, we play a leading role in delivering UKRI’s strategic themes and government strategies.

STFC is a leading delivery partner in the implementation of the National Space Strategy, working closely with partners across government. Specifically, we invest in key capabilities to deliver critical scientific and technical expertise to the UK space sector.

• work with the UK Space Agency (UKSA) to deliver a National Space Strategy implementation plan for astrophysics research, including exploiting fundamental research and technology development for future science and exploration missions, and international engagement
• work with UKSA, UK Space Command, commercial and academic partners to ensure that the sustainable utilisation of space is fully integrated into development strategies, including minimising impacts on fundamental science from commercial exploitation
• invest £4 million towards commissioning the new National Satellite Test Facility at Harwell, providing a key sovereign capability for the UK civil and military space sector
• invest £9.6 million to deliver the SWIMMR (Space Weather) programme and the UK’s contributions to the SPEQTRE quantum key distribution Cubesat mission

Building a green future

Our multidisciplinary facilities play a nationally significant role in developing green technologies by supporting a programme of targeted net zero research and delivering against the UKRI building a green future strategic theme, the UK’s net zero research and innovation framework and the British  Energy Security Strategy.

• leverage the capability of STFC national laboratories to deliver a new net zero research and innovation demonstrator programme in conjunction with UK industry
• complete the business case for a new centre of excellence in ‘sustainable accelerators’

Investing in transformative technologies

We collaborate closely across UKRI to facilitate the exploitation of transformative technologies across disciplines and industries and deliver against the Innovation Strategy’s 7 technology families.

• drive end user adoption and commercialisation of quantum computing in support of consultations on the UK Quantum Strategy, Options and Scenario Analysis for Quantum Mission and Quantum Mission delivery plan
• develop and implement a fully resourced quantum readiness programme within the remit of NQCC full business case, scalable in the event of future additional funding
• invest £7.5 million in a new ‘AI for Science’ initiative within our Scientific Computing Department to embed AI in the operation of our multidisciplinary facilities. We aim to collaborate with similar initiatives at the US Department of Energy’s national laboratories to maximise the impact
• work across UKRI to create a digital research infrastructure that supports the wider UKRI programme and that is fully accessible to other government and public sector organisations
• work with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC) and others across UKRI to deliver an infrastructure proposal in advanced imaging, allowing the resolution of the molecular detail of biological samples

Building a secure and resilient world

Our research and innovation supports the delivery of the Integrated Review as well as the UKRI building a secure and resilient world strategic theme, developing new technology for real-time monitoring of potential threats and security risks and developing world-leading simulation capability in targeted areas.

• collaborate with the Ministry of Defence to develop a new co-ordinated programme to support the UK’s key ‘security and resilience’ agenda across a range of areas including laser-based technologies, space, quantum technology and computational fluid dynamics

Case study: demonstrating new technology to decarbonize the energy sector

The discovery of a new way to produce hydrogen from ammonia, at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in 2014, paved the way for the use of ‘green’ ammonia as a zero-carbon energy source.

Created from air and water using renewable energy, green ammonia can be used to produce hydrogen, a carbon-free fuel. By switching to renewable electricity to make ammonia, over 40 million tons of CO2 could be saved each year in Europe alone, or more than 360 million tons worldwide.

The world’s first green ammonia power demonstrator, built in 2018 with funding from Innovate UK, EPSRC and Siemens and operating at Harwell, illustrates how this technology could decarbonise heating, transport and industry.

In 2021, STFC investors IP group and aerospace manufacturer Reaction Engines established a joint venture, kick-started through the Harwell EnergyTec Cluster, to investigate ammonia as a fuel for the aviation and shipping industries in support of the UK’s net zero agenda.

Case study: tackling global challenges: fighting COVID-19

Sustained investment from STFC in world-class research and innovation infrastructure positioned the UK’s scientific community to be able to mount a rapid response to the coronavirus pandemic and continue to play a key role in the world’s fight against COVID-19.

STFC’s Central Laser Facility (CLF) researchers used optical trapping to investigate the behaviour of COVID-19-causing virus SARS-CoV-2 in aerosol droplets and how this impacts virus transmission.

CLF’s OCTOPUS Imaging Cluster utilised cryogenic microscopy to reveal structural information on the virus’s replication cycle.

Protein analysis capabilities at Diamond Light Source (DLS) were utilised to discover the structure of a key component of SARS-CoV-2.

Part of COVID Moonshot, DLS also generated detailed 3D views of how potential drugs interact with key proteins on SARS-CoV-2. The consortium rapidly identified potent antivirals, which are now undergoing a preclinical programme.

DLS is building on COVID Moonshot, through the AI-driven Structure-enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) to discover and develop globally accessible and affordable new antiviral drugs to combat COVID-19 and future pandemics.

STFC’s high performance computing capabilities continue to underpin this research, providing the digital infrastructure needed to rapidly model, analyse and interpret data.

Case study: delivering the National Space strategy

STFC will be a leading partner for the delivery of the goals of the National Space strategy.

Through our world-leading space research and development base and our deep partnerships with the UK Space Agency (UKSA), ESA, NASA, Innovate UK, Department for International Trade, Ministry of Defence, BEIS, and industry, STFC will drive growth of the UK space sector and provide some of the highest impact opportunities and enablers to bring the 10 point plan to life through:

• leading the further development and growth of Harwell Space Cluster, the largest space cluster in the UK, home to RAL Space, ESA UK headquarters and the Satellite Applications Catapult. The cluster includes 100 space related organisations, which collectively employ 1,400 people
• expanding the number of start-ups supported by the ESA Business Incubation Centre UK across its sites on behalf of ESA and the UKSA, further supporting a growing number of fledgling firms to transform ambitious space-tech ideas into commercial reality. Since its inception, more than 100 start-ups have been supported by the programme. These companies have raised over £99 million in investment and, in 2020 alone, incubatees filed 12 new patents
• completing and operating the National Satellite Test Facility, the UK’s first purpose built, comprehensive set of large-scale space test facilities at a single location facilitating the testing of larger, more technologically advanced spacecraft and space payloads and removing the need for UK companies to use test facilities located abroad
• implement the north west Space Cluster Strategy, addressing the government’s ambitions of levelling up the space economy and growing world class space clusters. The north west Space Cluster will capitalise on the rapid growth of the UK’s space sector and the significant opportunity for regional growth, leveraging existing regional strengths in adjacent sectors such as advanced manufacturing, big data, telecoms and software

Objective 6: a world-class organisation

STFC is a large and complex council within UKRI, consisting of over 2,500 scientific, technical and administrative staff.

We operate over £2 billion of investment in major research infrastructure and are delivering an investment portfolio of over £1 billion in ongoing and new construction projects.

We strive for operational excellence, ensuring that we use our collective resources across the entire research and innovation community to generate maximum scientific, economic, environmental, social and cultural impact.

Our operational excellence covers all areas, including our role as research funder, and has a strong focus on science delivery at our research and innovation sites.

This requires an effective, dynamic organisation that supports the development, safety, and wellbeing of a diverse mix of staff working across our scientific sites.

We support activities from governance and administration to running complex instrumentation while managing our environmental impact.

In the formative years of UKRI we have put in place strong and clear internal governance structures and have initiated a wide-ranging continuous improvement programme aligned with the broader UKRI change programme and the new operating model.

Valuing our people

Our most important asset is our people. Building on the UKRI equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, we have developed our STFC people plan, an action plan aimed at addressing a variety of issues including skills shortages in the UK, particularly in engineering and computing specialisms, which, combined with an increasing public-private sector pay gap in these areas, presents challenges for recruitment and retention.

This issue is the highest risk to our continued operation of existing facilities and new construction projects.

The plan also describes how we aim to develop diverse talent and promote an open and inclusive culture that embeds EDI into all our processes (from funding opportunities and advisory board membership to career support and our talent attraction framework).

We value and encourage the diversity that will enable us to deliver our exciting mission to produce extraordinary and world-leading scientific breakthroughs and contribute to the UK’s ambitions to be a global science superpower.

• support staff with appropriate training to enable everyone to have the tools and knowledge to embed EDI in all they do, supported by clear actions with well-defined targets and metrics. We will also produce equality impact assessments for funding calls and all major initiatives
• support our people by introducing a competency and behaviours framework and providing targeted management training and development in support of it, alongside establishing a 360 degree appraisal process to provide more effective feedback to managers and staff and drive improvement across the organisation
• introduce an anonymous reporting tool to enable a safe space for staff to raise issues and develop a reverse mentoring scheme to draw on the experiences of diverse colleagues across STFC
• work across UKRI and with BEIS on establishing the pay flexibility case for STEM staff in critical job families
• explore options for the structured use of special allowances to attract and retain STEM staff with specialised skills in engineering and technology

Improving the way we work

Working across UKRI, we will develop and implement a new operating model to make UKRI’s operations simpler and better, to the benefit of our staff and our stakeholders.

This will include maintaining a strategic pipeline of ambitious and transformative science, innovation, and infrastructure concepts ready to respond to funding opportunities across the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and UKRI priority areas, while delivering our operational excellence goals.

It will also include operating with transparent, robust, and clearly documented governance and management processes, and simplifying our sub-committee structure reporting into STFC council to reduce bureaucracy and administrative load.

We have embedded a culture of continuous improvement across the organisation that will enable us to deliver our ambitious strategic delivery plan with more effective and efficient processes with the goal of delivering efficiency savings of £2 million each year by the end of 2024 to 2025.

• embed a robust long-term (10 year) financial planning process across STFC, contributing to UKRI being an effective and agile organisation, maximising return for the UK taxpayer
• produce development plans for STFC owned campuses; including a roadmap to enable the provision of adequate power, infrastructure, and services to meet future development requirements
• invest in the aging parts of our science estate to make it more modern, safe, and efficient, reduce energy consumption, and enhance cybersecurity in our digital infrastructure

Reducing our environmental impact

As part of UKRI, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact.

We aim to embed environmental sustainability in all STFC operations, estates strategy, research, supply chains and projects to enable us to meet our net zero objectives and UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy , as part of our plan to transition to net zero operations by 2040.

• identify and incorporate more environmentally sustainable alternatives and solutions for all aspects of STFC’s work
• deliver a programme of power consumption reduction activities and develop an energy roadmap for the RAL site to assure continuity and sustainability of supply
• increase biodiversity on our campuses to make a positive contribution to the environment by developing a biodiversity action plan

The figures provided in this document are in line with the 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025 budget allocations for UKRI. These are broken down by our budgeting and reporting categories, and exclude funding for:

• official development assistance (ODA)
• financial transactions
• BEIS managed programmes.

Figures are indicative and may vary over the course of the 3-year period due to budget adjustments made as a part of on-going financial management and planning processes to maximise the use of our total funding.

From 2022 to 2023, UKRI talent investments are managed collectively across the research councils. The funding for collective talent activities outlined in this delivery plan are accounted for in the broader collective talent funding line included in our corporate plan.

Infrastructure projects are detailed separately below. Note that further infrastructure allocations to councils may be made during the Spending Review period from the:

• infrastructure fund
• digital research infrastructure programme
• carbon zero fund programme.

Further allocations may be made during the Spending Review period. Excludes wave 1 preliminary activities where spend was in 2021 to 2022 only. Allocations include contingency, which may be returned if unused.

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