Facts and figures

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy and an island nation off the coast of north-western Europe comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.¹ The national parliament is one of the oldest continuous representative assemblies in the world.²

The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union in 2020 but remains a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and  signed an agreement with the EU in 2023 for associate country access to Horizon Europe.³ Responsibility for education including higher education in England is retained by the national parliament and devolved to locally elected assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leading to four approaches to higher education policy and funding.⁴

The UK has one of the world’s leading higher education and research and development ecosystems, including several universities ranked in the top 10 globally. It is ranked 5^th on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s global innovation index.⁵ More than 2.77 million people were estimated to be working in R&D in 2024. ⁶

Gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) increased by 21 % between 2018 and 2022 to reach 70.7 billion UK pounds or 2.8% of Gross Domestic Product. The main sectors financing GERD in 2022 were business enterprise, providing 62%, and government, with 18%. ⁷

The European Patent Office granted 3,363 patents to residents of the UK in 2024.⁸

Life scientists in the UK have access to funding from the national research council UKRl, devolved administrations, charities and private sources ⁴ and, through an association agreement, from Horizon Europe and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions ³ as well as EMBO.