To secure investment, science must tell its story better
A new report from Demos reveals how the public talk about research online – and why the research community’s advocacy needs to catch up.
The R&D decade: making the case for government investment
The UK government has promised to invest more in research. We want to help secure this investment to overcome the biggest challenges in the world, such as climate change and epidemics.
Our position
The UK stands at the start of a decade where investment in research and development (R&D) could increase by almost 50%. In the 2020 budget, the Chancellor announced that public R&D investment will increase to £22 billion per year by 2024-25.
Research transforms lives – and the government must fulfil its promises to invest in it.
What we're doing
To secure increased government investment, advocates across the research sector must make a fresh and compelling case to political leaders and the public.
Through our R&D Decade project, in partnership with the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), we want to explore how advocacy will need to change between now and 2030 to sustain research and development as a political priority.
As part of the project, we collaborated with Public First to review advocacy approaches taken by other sectors and to host public focus groups. The evidence has been consolidated into a new report – Advocating for R&D investment [PDF 5.9MB].
Advocating for R&D investment
The report sets out four advocacy models that describe how the research community might work together more effectively:
- Model 1: Build popular support for R&D investment through tailored, tangible advocacy delivered by a new generation of highly-trained community advocates.
- Model 2: Build a stronger, authoritative voice through a new R&D think-tank, which is able to swiftly link R&D to emerging political ‘hot topics’.
- Model 3: Mobilise vocal advocates for R&D investment through rallies, petitions and a network of grassroots activists willing to champion R&D as a priority.
- Model 4: Build more central support and training to help R&D organisations tell their story to the public and politicians in the most coordinate and effective way.
Additional resources
Next steps
Together with CaSE, we’ll be engaging the research community in conversations over the summer of 2020 – to digest the findings of the report and decide together what actions should be taken.
Reports and case studies
- Wellcome's priorities for the 2021 Budget [PDF 156KB]
- Beyond the bubble: the online conversation on research and development [PDF 617KB]
- Wellcome's submission to the 2020 Spending Review [PDF 235KB]
- A series of reports exploring the economic returns from investment in medical research, with a focus on:
- musculoskeletal disease: final report and key findings [PDF 149KB]
- cardiovascular disease: final report and key findings [PDF 239KB]
- cancer: final report and key findings [PDF 335KB].
- Empowering UK universities: how strategic institutional support helps research thrive [PDF 1.16MB]
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Contact us
If you have any questions, contact Martin Smith.