UK may extend cut to overseas aid spending

Rumoured two-year extension of aid budget cut could be bad news for R&D

The Treasury has refused to comment on rumours that cuts to foreign aid might be extended for years, in a move that could spell further pain for the UK’s beleaguered aid-funded researchers.

The UK currently spends 0.5 per cent of national income on international development, after a long-standing commitment to spend 0.7 per cent was controversially paused in 2021 under Boris Johnson. The cut fell disproportionately on R&D programmes funded through official development assistance, severely damaging many research programmes and scientists’ careers, and was meant to last only until 2024-25.