UK Research and Innovation has agreed a £168m extension to a ground-breaking data-linking and research project that has had extensive impact across a range of public services over the past seven years.
The extension will see UKRI, which is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, continue to support the work of Administrative Data Research UK for a further five years.
According to UKRI, the project to “responsibly unlock” public sector data has included helping shine a light on patterns of reoffending in the criminal justice system which has enabled the Ministry of Justice to make interventions that are better targeted and more effective.
ADR UK has also worked with the Department for Education to link a wide range of data with the National Pupil Database in work that UKRI said was “critical” in tackling inequality and helping to boost social mobility.
Other success areas for the project have included providing data-led insights to support increases to the National Living Wagel and establishing the expected impact of minimum-alcohol-unit-pricing in Scotland in terms of annual lives saved.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle said the partnership with ADR UK was a practical example of the extent to which data is “absolutely vital” in supporting policy decisions that transform lives.
“By investing £168m of government funding to extend this programme, we are backing our world class researchers to build on this work, unlocking more of the data they need to improve lives and deliver the economic growth and opportunity as part of our Plan for Change,” he said.
UKRI said the next investment phase would see ADR UK support research to improve cancer detection by using health and administrative data in partnership with Cancer Research UK.
Funding will also be directed to inform policies to boost economic growth and improve living standards by expanding the linked datasets that are available to researchers and policymakers.
MPs warn of ‘severe challenges’ facing research and innovation
UKRI’s announcement comes just a day after members of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee warned that the research and innovation sector faces “severe challenges” in terms of businesses scaling up into successful commercial ventures.
UKRI invests £8bn a year to support research and innovation, making it the largest public funder of its kind. However, PAC members said there was no unified picture of what obstacles need to be overcome for those scaling-up efforts.
MPs said systemic problems included a lack of the right skills, a tendency for companies to spin out research and innovation into commercial ventures too early and “a lack of clearly defined objectives for UKRI” by which its performance can be judged.
Committee members said a cross-government approach to helping UK-based research and innovation to scale up was required. They added that government should do more to assess the impact of the support provided by UKRI to new ventures prior to incorporation to help them become more attractive to investors.
MPs also said they were “concerned” that UKRI did not actively monitor its “high risk, high reward” investments. They suggested in their report that the organisation should work with DSIT to “further develop their approach to risk” in funding research and innovation.
Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the UK had “historically been a research superpower” but needed to improve the way work is scaled up from “novel ideas” to commercially-successful “reality”.
“It is of course crucial that government does not take unjustified risks with taxpayers’ money, but if it is to harness the scientific brilliance the UK has to offer, UKRI has a responsibility to ensure the right risks are taken at the right time,” he said.
“Our inquiry found that the environment in which UKRI operates poses significant challenges in translating important research into successful going concerns. There is much more to do if UKRI is to become the focused actor delivering on government’s priorities.”
Clifton-Brown said the government needed to bring all the support it could muster to bear on the skills gaps identified in fledgling businesses.
He added: “UKRI itself must bring up to date its own systems, while embedding better accountability and transparency in its organisations. Whether it is in the areas of engineering, biology or quantum, both government and UKRI must now look to the recommendations in our report if the UK is to maintain its edge in a fiercely competitive world.”