The UKRI, The Larges Single Public Funder of Research and Innovation in the UK, Needs Funding Assurance. The UK Research and Innovation: Providing Support Through GrantS report by the National Audit Committee (NaO) Found That The Organization's Ongoing Challenges Include a Lack of Joined-up direction from government departments; Inefficient data systems; And the need to consider how to further support well-managed risk-taking through organisical culture.
The report found a Lack of Coordination in how the government expects Ukri to support the delivery of a range of objectives.
The UKRI uses its budget To support the government's research and innovation ageda. Given the Multi-Year Nature of Ukri's Investments, It Needs to Make a High Level of Financial Commitments Into Future Financial Years, Whoch, The Nao Said, Limits the Budget Available to Respond to Emerging Government Priorities Throughing New Programs.
Due to the broad nature of Ukri's activity, government departments indicate their policy priorities to ukri through a variety of means, include ad hoc and routine meetings, Government Strategies and Mission StatementsAnd Spending Review Budgets. However, the nao reported that these are not consolidated or ranked.
The report's authors found that since its establishment, Ukri has been grappling with consolidating the data of its predacesor organizations, which Ran Separate Systems and Had Data Quality Essules. Although it has developed a system to classify Grants by theme algorithmically, based on the award title and description, tracing or analysing other aspects of spring Difential manual exercise. The nao was told by ukri that Around 15% of its Grants do not have a full description on its system or the descriptions are poor quality, which means that Spending on these Grants CANNOTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS KANTS Automatically classified.
There are also issues related to fraud. The Nao Reported that the Counter-Fraud Team at the UKRI is under-stuffed, which means there is a backlog of cases and limited capacity for preventative work.
The report from the nao found that in 2023-24, Ukri Investigated Suspected Fraud on £ 42.6m of Grants. It identified £ 4.6m of fraud; Prevend £ 13.5m and recovered £ 80,000. The nao noted that ukri has recognized there are issues with its approach to fraud, and said it was reorganising its risk, Assurance, Countter-Fraud and Corporate Governance TEAM. According to the Nao Report, The Ukri is working on a new counter-fraud strategy and a new approach to funding assuance; Has recruited new staff; And begun efforts to improve team culture and update fraud risk assessments. The Nao was told to expect improments by September 2025.
The author's of the report concluded that UKRI, which spends Around £ 9bn annually, needs to setuish a strong approach to understand how its work is providing a return on investments.
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Said: “Ukri plays a key role in support a substantiial and health R&I SYSTEM, SIKE SYSTEM, SIKE SIKE SIKE SIKE SIKE SIKE SYSTEM, Seeking to TAKE RIGH RIGH RED Approach to Grant Funding.
“For the Nation to Remain Global Leaders in R&I, UKRI must More to Support Its Decision-Makers, Foster Resilience and Ensure Our Systems Can Continue to Responded to Emerging Challenges.”