Interview: Champion of charities on their R&D role

AMRC boss Nicola Perrin talks to Research Professional News on first day in new job

In March this year, as fears over UK government support for R&D were reaching a crescendo, the prime minister and chancellor were being warned about a three-pronged threat to UK research.

Alongside concerns over how the UK would pay for membership of the EU’s Horizon Europe R&D programme and severe cuts to research projects funded by UK aid, research leaders and parliamentarians were raising the alarm that medical research charities were expecting to reduce their annual R&D funding by more than 40 per cent due to the pandemic.