What do the public think about R&D and the UK Government’s missions?

Shifting public priorities

The public are most concerned with the cost of living and quality of the NHS, with the cost of living being viewed as the most important issue facing the UK since 2022.

However, compared to previous polls, concerns about levels of immigration and crime have both risen, with immigration now close behind the state of the economy, and levels of crime selected by 18%, slightly overtaking concern for the threat of climate change (17%).

Crime levels

This increasing public concern about crime levels was reflected in our focus groups, with participants seeing the crime-reduction mission as a top priority.

Yet, this same mission was seen as the least achievable in our polling. A majority (57%) felt that the Government will either make only a small amount or no progress towards achieving its crime-reduction mission in the next 5 years.

Interestingly, our research found that, when considering the crime-reduction mission, including an R&D approach of “investing in Research & Development of new security technology” led to a slight increase in the proportion of people saying the plan was forward-thinking and more likely to be fully achieved by the Government.

With crime becoming an increasing public priority, this mission could present an opportunity for the R&D sector to clearly demonstrate a role for R&D in delivering on issues that matter to people.

Clean energy

The mission to “Make Britain a clean energy superpower” and its objectives were consistently put as a low or lowest priority in both polling and by participants in focus groups. This included when poll respondents were asked to pick which one mission would benefit the most from R&D.

Yet we also found that a majority see an important or essential role for R&D in the clean energy mission objectives. Similarly, R&D relating to clean energy was at the forefront in focus groups when participants were asked to give examples of R&D that would benefit any mission.

Previous CaSE research has shown that 42% think new research is essential for tackling climate change, and that 75% think that investing in an R&D solution is a better way to address climate change than a non-R&D solution.

Together these findings suggest that, although in isolation the public see an important role for R&D in climate and clean energy goals, when forced to choose, people aren’t prioritising the clean energy mission itself or its mission-related objectives. It is possible that this lack of prioritisation of the UK Government’s clean energy goals, in the face of other pressing issues, is also colouring people’s answers as to which mission would benefit most from R&D.