Concordat vital to meeting R&D target, says UUK president

A revised agreement between funders and institutions on supporting the career development of researchers will help provide the skills that will be needed as the UK increases its R&D investment, the president of the vice-chancellors’ group Universities UK has said.

Speaking at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference on 16 September, Julia Buckingham said the government’s recent recommitment to increase R&D investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027 would bring both opportunities and challenges for academia.

“Whether that money goes to academia or whether it goes to industry, the expansion of the workforce that this investment is going to bring is absolutely enormous,” she said.