Discovery, research and innovation policy summaries

Influencing the policy and funding environment to enable a flourishing chemical science research base to generate knowledge, support knowledge transfer and commercialisation and, contribute to solutions to the great global challenges of our time.

Further reading:

→ Research funding policies

→ Research councils policies

→ International Collaboration

1. Research funding: UK investment in R&D

   The Government has committed to increase the UK’s investment in research and development (R&D) to 2.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2027. The UK is currently a world-leader in research and innovation despite being underfunded, but risks falling behind other research-intensive countries that have invested up to 3.1% of GDP in R&D in the last year. Delivery on the Government’s 2.4% commitment is crucial for the chemical sciences to continue to deliver advances that enable growth and deliver solutions to global challenges.

   In the lead up to the government’s 2019 spending review, we are working with sister societies and organisations such as the Campaign for Science and Engineering to ensure government delivers on its 2.4%. This includes demonstrating the vital role of discovery-led research as part of a successful research and innovation sector.

   Get inspired by the Inspirational Chemistry case studies that we published in the lead up to the 2015 spending review.

2. Collaboration

   Science is a collaborative endeavour. The chemical sciences can offer the widest benefits to society when researchers from different backgrounds, be that country, sector or subject, come together to share knowledge and expertise.

   International collaboration and funding: participating in the European Union research and innovation funding programmes, like Horizon 2020, is an important way of enabling international collaboration. Our research looks at the unique benefits framework programmes like Horizon 2020 bring to the chemical sciences and calls on UK and EU governments to ensure the UK is able to participate fully in the next programme, Horizon Europe.

   Explore our research and how we’ve been using it to inform and shape policy.

   University-business collaboration: Effective collaboration between universities and businesses brings a range of benefits to academics, companies, students and the UK economy. Our research looked at university-business engagement in the chemical sciences in the UK, and found a wide range and diversity of collaborative activities.

   Explore our research and our case studies highlighting some of the innovative collaborations going on.

3. Open Access/Plan S

   Open Access refers to the free and permanent unrestricted online access to scholarly research. Authors retain copyright to their work, and a licence is applied which allows users to download, copy, reuse and distribute data provided the original article is fully cited. Open access aims to maximise the visibility of research, much of which is publicly funded, and to make research results widely accessible to Chemical Scientists, businesses, policy professionals and the broader public.

   The RSC is highly committed to increasing Open Access to high quality scholarly research. Our Charter states our commitment to fostering and encouraging the growth and application of the chemical sciences through the dissemination of chemical knowledge. The RSC is working with UKRI to ensure that the Chemical Sciences community’s voice is heard when developing Open Access policies.

   Recent work on Open Access has included development of our policy position on Plan S.