PS22484 - R&D outcome-based data sourcing and dashboard development

Awarded contract via CSS RM6126 Research & Insights DPS

Government investment in research and development (R&D) is critical for the advancement of science and technology and the overall growth and development of a country.

As well as investing in the foundational research that supports the scientific discoveries of tomorrow ("science superpower" ambition), government R&D funding aims to encourage businesses to invest in developing new products and processes which drive innovation across the economy, increasing productivity and in turn delivering economic growth ("innovation nation" ambition).

However, tracking progress against those broad objectives is often difficult, with traditional statistics suffering from long time-lags and only offering a high-level assessment of performance. Through this project, we are looking to scope a range of metrics that will report against R&D ambitions, pushing beyond the usual data sources such as the ONS with more experimental data (e.g. web scraping) that can be updated at a higher.