**Submission to four-year spending review comes as chancellor looks for savings**
A flat cash settlement for R&D at the upcoming spending review would be a “retrograde step” for the UK, the Royal Society has warned.
In its submission to the Treasury ahead of the fiscal event due to be delivered by chancellor Rachel Reeves in June, the Royal Society called for the R&D budget to rise to £22 billion in 2026-27.
This was a target under the previous Conservative government; in a one-year spending review delivered in autumn 2024, the Treasury under the current Labour government increased the R&D budget in line with inflation to £20.4bn for 2025-26.
With the spending review [setting R&D budgets for four years](https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-politics-2025-2-four-year-spending-review-raises-stakes-for-research/)—from April 2026 to April 2030—there is much at stake, and the chancellor is expected to look for cuts where possible against a backdrop of difficult economic forecasts for the UK.
**‘Sustained spending needed’**
In its submission, published on 18 March, the Royal Society said a flat cash settlement for R&D over the spending review period would be equivalent to a £3.2bn real-terms funding cut.
Such an outcome “would be a retrograde step, risking a significant adverse effect on the UK’s science capabilities, investor confidence and the loss of billions of pounds of potential private sector co-investment”, it said.
Instead the government should “provide the certainty of a minimum of sustained real-terms funding for research over a 10-year time horizon, with a regular review cycle”, the society said.
It called for the government to “set an ambition to lead the G7 in R&D intensity”, which is the share of GDP a country invests in R&D. The UK invested just under 3 per cent in 2021, which the Royal Society said put it 11th among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
**International science strategy**
The society also called on the government to play a “more active role in attracting foreign direct and overseas funding into UK science” by developing a “cross-government, highly visible international science strategy”.
It said more action is needed to encourage global companies to base their R&D activities in the UK, including removing immigration hurdles. A Royal Society analysis found that upfront costs were on average 17 times higher in the UK than in similar countries, and said the government should use an upcoming immigration white paper to bring down such costs.
However, in response to a report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee that also called for upfront visa costs to be reduced, [the government ruled out taking such action](https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-politics-2025-3-ministers-reject-call-to-reduce-upfront-visa-costs-for-scientists/).