Sir Ian Chapman
Chief executive of UK Research and Innovation.
Peers summoned Sir Ian Chapman, chief executive of UK Research and Innovation, to give oral evidence on the agency's funding approach on 14 July 2026, just five days after the STFC national-laboratories settlement confirmed a 58% cut.
Last refreshed: 31 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why is UKRI's chief facing Lords scrutiny over its funding approach?
Timeline for Sir Ian Chapman
Mentioned in: Physics loses 2.7% as STFC holds flat
UK Startups and InnovationGave oral evidence to the Committee on UKRI's funding approach
UK Startups and Innovation: Lords question UKRI chief on fundingBackground
Sir Ian Chapman is chief executive of UK Research and Innovation, the UK's principal public funder of research and innovation. He oversees how UKRI's budget is allocated across nine research councils, including the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Innovate UK, and answers to Parliament for how that money is spent.
The chief executive role places Chapman at the centre of a recurring tension between funding research grants directly and maintaining the ageing buildings and equipment that host that research, a balance UKRI's council chairs and government must reconcile at every settlement.
Parliamentary select committees routinely call UKRI's chief executive to account for funding decisions taken across its research councils, making appearances before bodies such as the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee a standard, recurring feature of the role rather than a one-off event.
Chapman defends UKRI's shrinking lab budgets
Chapman answered for UKRI's funding approach before peers on the Lords Science and Technology Committee on 14 July 2026; UKRI had confirmed the 58% cut to the Science and Technology Facilities Council's national laboratories just five days before his appearance. Lowdown holds only the committee's listing, not a transcript, so no answers from the hearing are reported here.
Two weeks later, STFC set out how that squeeze lands: a 2.7% Science-budget fall over four years even as the overall settlement holds flat, money moving from research grants into building repairs, and one facility mothballed. As UKRI's chief executive, defending that allocation, and the new strategy expected to follow, falls to Chapman personally.
