Following the Chancellor's announcement of the 2023 Spring Budget, Professor Dame Anne Johnson PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said:
“Today’s [Wednesday 15 March] budget rightly recognises that supporting the UK’s life sciences and research and innovation sectors is essential for generating further economic growth.
“Excellence in research and development is vital both for the health of the public and the nation’s economy. The Chancellor has listened to the concerns of R&D-intensive companies following last year’s cuts to their tax credits, announcing today a welcome R&D tax relief rate which rewards our most innovative small and medium sized life sciences companies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as a world-leading regulator, and I am pleased that the Chancellor will continue to support its role in ensuring that the UK is both an attractive place to develop new treatments and that these reach patients as quickly as possible.
“The new investment zones announced today present an exciting opportunity for driving productivity in medical science across all regions of the UK. These proposals will play to our academic strengths, with the explicit connection of the zones to local research institutes and universities.
“While we await further detail on the promising announcements from this budget, I hope that the Government will take the earliest opportunity to provide an update on the pressing issue of Horizon Europe. The scientific community has repeatedly highlighted that full UK participation in Horizon Europe is the best possible outcome for research and for the health of people everywhere.”
- ENDS-