Here is my view on what’s wrong with funding of scientific research in the UK, and how I would change the focus if it was up to me! There is a long list of things that UKRI needs to weigh when making decisions about funding for research and facilities, and driving growth is not one of them. The reason is that the whole of UKRI’s portfolio is essential for driving growth - indeed the research ecosystem is one of the necessary foundations of growth. The point I made at the Labour Conference is quite simple. UKRI’s budget is 0.65% of government expenditure, at a little under £10 Bn per year. That is a very tiny leaver when seen through the prism of attempting to use it to make a step change in economic growth - especially when the leaders of UKRI and the Research Councils are not economists and should not be economists! Their expertise lies in research. BUT, and this is the key point - if by fiddling around trying to use this tiny budget (in relative terms) to make a noticeable change in growth you damage the fundamentals, then you run the real risk of damaging the growth potential of the rest of the economy. Universities, research labs, education and inspiration are all essential for growth. This is what UKRI should be focused on because they are the custodians of this VERY valuable but fragile world-leading ecosystem. So, I would say to UKRI, do the thing you are supposed to do, do it well on behalf of the rest of the economy, and do nothing else.

The problem is in the economics of it. To be able to talk with each student individually, we need to increase the faculty/student ratio dramatically. Which means increasing tuition. But with AI the opportunity cost of tuition rises even more.