Dear All

As part of the Spending Review for 2025/26, DSIT has announced almost £14 billion of R&D funding, with £8.8 billion budget for UKRI. We welcome the protection of R&D budgets, particularly as the government is having to make difficult choices to prioritise its spending in the face of more challenging time with constrained budgets across the public sector. The case for research and innovation is strong given its central role in driving economic growth and improving productivity in the economy and public services. As we enter a period of tighter budgets, UKRI is working collectively to ensure its portfolio as a whole is balanced to deliver the best outcomes now and in the future.

STFC recognises the world-leading and exceptional work throughout the UK astronomy community and their ambitions for the future and the discovery potential in this field of frontier science. The established relationship between STFC as a Funding Agency and as an international partner through the National Laboratories working with the institutions and universities is critically valuable to deliver the international objectives of many ground-breaking and exciting experiments.

Given the financial situation we have again needed to make difficult decisions to balance the budget while trying to maintain volume of awards and breadth of programme. This aligns with changes across the PPAN programme and advice was provided by Science Board PPAN.

• Small Awards – successful awards will start in October 2026 (rather than April 2026)

• Large Awards – successful awards will start at the earliest in April 2027 (rather than April 2026). Confirmation of the start date is dependent on Phase 2 Spending Review.

• Large Awards call planned to open in summer 2025 for full proposal submission in 2026, will not happen due to change in start dates for 2025 Large Awards. We will look to reinstate the Large Awards scheme depending on the outcome of Phase 2 Spending Review.

Should you have any queries please contact Kim.Burchell@stfc.ukri.org

Kim Burchell
Head of Astronomy Awards
Astronomy
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Polaris House
Swindon