Which councils and organisations make up UKRI?

Updated

UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) is made up of seven research councils, plus Research England and Innovate UK — nine bodies in total. Together they cover disciplines from the arts, humanities and social sciences through to biology, environmental sciences, physics and engineering, and they publish their own news and funding information through ukri.org.

The nine organisations

Organisation What it covers
Seven research councils The disciplinary research base, spanning arts and humanities, social sciences, biology, environmental sciences, physics and engineering
Research England Research and knowledge exchange in English universities
Innovate UK Business-led innovation and commercialisation

The site describes itself as "the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK," so ukri.org acts as the shared front door for all nine bodies rather than for a single council.

What this means for how you use the site

Because each council sits inside UKRI, ukri.org carries a mix of content:

  • Cross-UKRI material — for example, the five-year strategy and corporate news such as the announcement that two new senior leaders joined UKRI.
  • Council-specific news — items are tagged with the responsible council, such as MRC for the research on extending animals' lives by activating an "energy saver" mode, or STFC for the UK researchers selected for a landmark NASA mission.
  • Funding opportunities — future research and innovation funding opportunities are listed on the site, and these come from across the constituent bodies.

If you are looking for funding or news in a specific field, the practical step is to identify which council covers that field, then follow that council's content within ukri.org rather than assuming everything on the site applies to you.

Scale and remit

UKRI states that every year it invests more than £9 billion of public money into research and innovation, with the stated aims of advancing knowledge, improving people's lives and driving growth in the UK. That figure covers the combined activity of the seven councils, Research England and Innovate UK.

Staying updated

UKRI offers email updates: you can subscribe to keep up to date with funding, news and events, and to receive a weekly newsletter. The site also invites feedback from users who want to help improve its online products and services.