Over the next five years, science and technology research in the UK will receive an additional £222 million ($369 million) in funding, according to Chancellor George Osborne’s annual budget announcement. This funding will supplement the current budget, which is £4.6 billion for each of the next two years. Rather than helping to sustain basic science research over the long term, much of the new funding will support new centers. R&D spending in the UK comprises only about 1.7% of its economy. Of the supplementary funds, £106 million is for Doctoral Training Centres, £55 million is for a center to manufacture late-stage clinical trial cell therapies and £42 million is for an institute for big data research. The remaining £19 million will go toward R&D of graphene-based products, with funds awarded to small companies for “access to equipment.” This is in addition to £38 million already invested in the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester. A complete science and innovation strategy will be released in the fall.

Source: Nature