What does the R&D roadmap mean for researchers?

The government’s proposed overhaul heralds big changes to UK research

I do not have a great track record with crystal balls. Each year I do a horizon scan for Funding Insight; each year I’m sideswiped by events. True enough, last year I couldn’t have predicted the Covid-19 pandemic. But, equally, I didn’t see the government’s R&D roadmap coming up on the inside lane.

This is both hefty (60 pages of excitable prose) and, apparently, sincere. It suggests we have at our fingertips a “once-in-a-generation opportunity…[to tackle] fundamental and challenging questions about our R&D priorities and address long-term problems in the system”.