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Research & Development

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Research & Development

For more information about the GREAT campaign and the information found in these scripts, please contact Annette Craze: annette.craze@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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  • The UK has a world-class research and development (R&D) environment that promotes innovation across all parts of the economy and society.

  • The UK is ranked as the world’s fourth most ‘innovative economy’ (Source: WIPO, 2023) and is home to two of the world’s top three universities, with 27 ranked in the top 200 (Source: QS World University Rankings 2025).

  • In the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review, the UK government committed to raise public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion annually by 2024/25, and up to £22 billion by 2026/27.

  • 43% of all UK-based R&D business expenditure was undertaken by foreign-owned companies in 2022, partly due to the generous financial support and tax incentives for innovation in the UK (Source: ONS Business enterprise R&D (BERD) UK 2022).

  • The UK has a world-class intellectual property system that has helped produce 78 Nobel Prize winners in scientific disciplines – more than any other country apart from the US. Companies operating in the UK can benefit from the ‘Patent Box’ scheme that has a corporation tax rate of 10% on profits from inventions patented in the UK.

  • The UK ranks third globally for venture capital (VC) investment (behind the US and China). UK VC investment was over $20 billion in 2023, the third highest total on record. That is double the investment of any other European country, and more than France and Germany combined (Source: Dealroom).

  • The UK is home to a third of all Europe’s unicorns (start-ups that have grown achieving a valuation of at least $1 billion). Latest figures show the UK has over 150 unicorns – more than France, Germany and Sweden combined (Source: Dealroom).

GREAT Inward Investment R&D campaign

The GREAT Global Trade campaign is the UK’s flagship investment campaign to attract foreign companies. It targets businesses across the nine HMTC regions using multiple channels including direct in-market engagement with senior decision makers, thought-leadership articles and local events.

The campaign promotes R&D investment opportunities in the UK (with a focus on space, life sciences, quantum computing, AI and engineering biology). The campaign is delivered jointly by the Department of Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in key target markets including the US, Germany and Japan.

For further information, please see: www.great.gov.uk/international/

Other information

The UK Innovation Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for innovation until 2035.