Audit finds delays in Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund

It can take well over a year to approve new challenges, says National Audit Office

The UK government and its R&D funding agency have been urged to speed up delivery of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and to spread the £3 billion in funding more evenly across the country.

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) comptroller and auditor general, Gareth Davies, found that lengthy approval processes for agreeing challenges and research projects had led to funding delays.