R&D levelling-up targets branded ‘modest and inadequate’

Policy experts describe plans to increase funding outside the south-east as “unambitious”

Targets set out by the UK government to increase the proportion of R&D funding outside the south-east are “modest and inadequate”, policy experts have said.

On 2 February, the government published its long-awaited Levelling Up white paper, which included a mission to increase public R&D investment outside the greater south-east by at least 40 per cent by 2030.