Covid-19 crisis overshadows chancellor’s multi-billion promise to boost research investment
As the the Covid-19 pandemic devastates the UK economy and the government response consumes vast amounts of capital, the scientific community will need to wait to see if pledges in the budget made at the start of the crisis will be honoured.
In his 11 March debut budget, the UK chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) pledged to increase research and development spending to £22 billion a year by 2024, which he described as “the fastest and largest increase in R&D spend ever”.