What will the next election bring for UK researchers?

Over the last few weeks, the UK’s main political parties have started laying out their stalls on the issues the next election will likely be fought on. A general election must take place in the UK within the next 15 months. And with Rishi Sunak’s record low approval ratings, many analysts are predicting that the next government will be led by Keir Starmer’s Labour party. So what might be at stake for the UK’s research sector when the next election comes around?

In a recently published industrial strategy document, Labour said it wanted 3% of the UK’s GDP to be invested in R&D. The Conservatives have had a long-standing goal for R&D spending to reach 2.4% of GDP, in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s average. However, Keiron Flanagan, an expert in science and technology policy from the University of Manchester, points out that both of these targets have likely already been reached, in large part due to a recent change in the way that the Office for National Statistics measures R&D spending.