Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what data he has collected on the impact of covid-19 on the UK’s research workforce; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the Government's national R&D investment target of reduced charity-funded research as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

The UK’s research workforce has been at the forefront of global efforts to combat the pandemic and understanding its impact on our lives and livelihoods. Vitae has undertaken two surveys of researchers, published in October 2020 and June 2021, to understand the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic. The survey results are available on www.vitae.ac.uk.

We recognise the important role that charities play as funders of R&D. That is why the Government announced £20 million funding in 2021/22 to help develop a pipeline of early career researchers and support the life-saving work of medical research charities. This is in addition to other support, including £204m of Charity Research Support as part of Research England’s Quality Related research funding. We look forward to the charity sector continuing to play an important role in driving R&D in the UK as the economy recovers. The Autumn 2021 Spending Review announced record-breaking investment in the UK’s world leading research base, increasing by £5bn to £20bn per annum by 2024/25 in line with the target of UK economy-wide R&D investment reaching 2.4% of GDP by 2027.