Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend, by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on research and development (R&D) is as follows:

Due to the Machinery of Government change, and reporting of previous years’ spend alongside spend now reported under the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, disaggregated data for solely DSIT’s share pre-2019 is not currently available.

Both GCRF and the Newton Fund will come to a natural close by 31^st March 2025. The Government will allocate future ODA to Departments as part of its standard Spending Review process.

The economic impact of the Covid pandemic has forced the UK Government to take tough, but necessary, decisions to move to a target of spending 0.5 per cent of GNI on ODA in 2021, as a temporary measure.

Despite the reductions, the UK remains a development superpower, with an ODA budget on track to exceed £10 billion this year. FCDO ODA will be targeted to addressing seven global challenges facing the world's poorest which both includes climate change and biodiversity, and science, research and technology. FCDO will make £251 million of science, research and technology investments across all seven themes of the Foreign Secretary's strategic objectives, including climate change and biodiversity.

For financial year 2019/20, £40m was allocated to the Global Challenges Research Fund International Research Hubs. For each of financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 they were allocated £41m. Final spend amounts are reported on a Calendar Year basis through the Statistics on International Development reporting process, published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means making difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.

On Tuesday 26th January, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, having concluded the Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations of the Spending Review, issued a statement outlining each Department’s total ODA settlement for financial year 2021/22. BEIS was allocated £706 million, to be split between International Climate Finance (ICF) and Research and Development ODA, which includes the Global Challenges Research Fund.

The challenging financial situation we face due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a temporary reduction in the UK’s aid spending target from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%. This means making difficult decisions when it comes to prioritising how we spend aid money to deliver the most impactful outcomes.

On Tuesday 26^th January, my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, having concluded the ODA allocations of the Spending Review, issued a statement outlining each Department’s total ODA settlement. At present, I am working with officials to determine how best to allocate BEIS’s allocation on a fund-by-fund basis, in line with the Strategic Framework for UK ODA.

The COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact has forced the government to take the difficult decision to temporarily reduce ODA to 0.5% of GNI and to take tough, but necessary decisions to maximise impact for our aid spend.

The Foreign Secretary has now completed the overall departmental cross-government allocations of ODA spend for 2021 and laid a Written Ministerial Statement in Parliament [today], summarising the outcomes. The resulting package will drive greater coherence, notwithstanding the difficult financial position we face. We will spend 0.5% (currently forecast as £10 billion) on our priorities of climate and biodiversity; COVID-19 and global health security; girls' education; science and research; open societies and conflict; humanitarian assistance; and trade.

Individual departments will now work through the implications of their spending allocation for the programmes and activities they manage.

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) has made an important contribution to global efforts to defeat poverty. With its focus on international research and innovation partnerships, GCRF is tackling some of the most intractable development challenges, which is why the Government has committed £1.5bn to the Fund since 2016.

The Department’s future spending proposals are subject to the Comprehensive Spending Review, which was launched by the Chancellor in July. This will consider all areas of BEIS Research and Innovation, including activity such as GCRF which is funded by Official Development Assistance.

As with all Government Departments, BEIS has had to adjust our allocation of ODA funding in response to the predicted fall in Gross National Income during 2020. The impacts of this adjustment on the Global Challenges Research Fund were discussed with both HM Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office during the process of agreeing the overall savings.

BEIS is working closely with our Global Challenges Research Fund delivery partners to ensure the impacts of Covid-19 are minimised as far as possible. In some cases this will result in extensions to grants enabling valuable research which has been delayed due to the pandemic to be completed.

In 2016 (the latest year for which data is published), the Global Challenges Research Fund delivered £72.4 million of ODA spend which was 0.54% of the government’s total ODA spend..

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) mainly supports projects where the benefits are to multiple countries. In 2016, the latest date for which figures are available, 92.4% of GCRF spend was reported as non-country specific ODA spend with no single benefitting country. Of the remaining 7.6%, the highest spend was assigned to regional projects in Africa and to Tanzania, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Guatemala and Peru.

In 2016, 12% of GCRF spend was categorised as “Medical Research”, we do not hold data on subcategories within this area.

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) mainly supports projects where the benefits are to multiple countries. In 2016, the latest date for which figures are available, 92.4% of GCRF spend was reported as non-country specific ODA spend with no single benefitting country. Of the remaining 7.6%, the highest spend was assigned to regional projects in Africa and to Tanzania, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Guatemala and Peru.

In 2016, 12% of GCRF spend was categorised as “Medical Research”, we do not hold data on subcategories within this area.

As stated in the recent White Paper, Government is committed to the Haldane principle, including with respect to Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). As with other areas of science and research activity, Research Councils will work with other delivery partners to prepare a high-level research strategy for the GCRF, which they will agree with Ministers. The specific approach to be taken to currently unallocated funds will be developed with delivery partners over the coming months, and will include using the funding to promote multidisciplinary research, in line with Sir Paul Nurse’s recommendations.

As stated in the recent White Paper, Government is committed to the Haldane principle, including with respect to Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). As with other areas of science and research activity, Research Councils will work with other delivery partners to prepare a high-level research strategy for the GCRF, which they will agree with Ministers. The specific approach to be taken to currently unallocated funds will be developed with delivery partners over the coming months, and will include using the funding to promote multidisciplinary research, in line with Sir Paul Nurse’s recommendations.

As stated in the recent White Paper, Government is committed to the Haldane principle, including with respect to Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). As with other areas of science and research activity, Research Councils will work with other delivery partners to prepare a high-level research strategy for the GCRF, which they will agree with Ministers. The specific approach to be taken to currently unallocated funds will be developed with delivery partners over the coming months, and will include using the funding to promote multidisciplinary research, in line with Sir Paul Nurse’s recommendations.