Conservatives commit to £2bn cuts in science and innovation funding

Following the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham this week, the party has released updated costings for its spending plans, filling in the details of the headline £71bn in savings announced by Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch.

Some £2bn of the savings planned are found by returning “DSIT-equivalent funding” to 2024–25 levels. The now-defunct Department for Science, Innovation and Technology spent £14.2bn in 2024–25 – against planned spending of £13.9bn – and in the June 2025 spending review it was allocated a settlement rising to £16.2bn of capital spending in 2029–30 (the year for which the Conservative spending plans relate).

The details of where the savings would be found have not been provided – we have repeatedly asked the Conservative press office for comment, to no reply – but the £2bn figure matches proposals briefed to the Telegraph last December. In these, the cuts were specifically to the UKRI budget, relating to grants for supposed “nonsense” projects, and in part would pay for increased defence spending. This was later described by shadow science minister Julia Lopez as a “redeployment” into national security-related R&D.

This would now appear to be fixed Conservative policy. Other savings announced include a reduction to planned investment in the British Business Bank of £1bn a year, cuts to local growth schemes, and a more than £9bn reduction in overseas development funding.

We also get confirmation that a Conservative government would not participate in Erasmus+ – rather, it would substitute participation in the European mobility programme with a revived Turing scheme, which it estimates would generate £490m less in spending commitments.