UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the national research funding body, allocated £162 million on 14 September, of which £95 million goes to the Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials and £67.7 million to the Rosalind Franklin Institute for life-sciences technology1. Neither institute is a laboratory in one building. Both operate shared equipment and expertise that university groups and small companies book rather than buy, which is why an allocation to two named institutes reaches companies that will never appear on the award list. Capital equipment of this kind sets what a British spinout can attempt without raising the money to buy an instrument first. UKRI has been issuing awards through a period when its own sponsor department's name has not settled on gov.uk, and the allocations have gone out regardless.
UKRI puts £162m into two institutes
UK Research and Innovation allocated £162 million on 14 September, £95 million to the Henry Royce Institute and £67.7 million to the Rosalind Franklin Institute.
Two shared-facility institutes take £162 million that small companies will use without owning.
Deep Analysis
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the government body that funds scientific research, gave £162m to two national institutes. £95m went to the Henry Royce Institute, which researches new materials and is based in Manchester, and £67.7m went to the Rosalind Franklin Institute, which develops new technology for life sciences and is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire. Both institutes provide shared equipment and expertise that individual universities and companies could not afford alone, letting researchers across the country use advanced facilities through one national body rather than each building their own.
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