The UK’s talent pipeline

Successive governments have shared the ambition for the UK to be a global leader in scientific research and innovation. The Covid-19 pandemic, the transition to a low-carbon economy and the rapid development of AI have only reinforced this. In 2025, the government announced £86 billion in public research and development investment to 2029–30. The creation of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade has further embedded R&I within the government’s economic agenda.

But where will the people who deliver these ambitions come from? Tomorrow’s researchers, innovators, scientists, engineers and technicians are in today’s classrooms. Many students encounter science mainly as established knowledge to learn for exams, rather than as a process of asking questions, investigating problems, interpreting evidence and developing ideas. They have limited opportunities to practise the technical and transferable skills involved in research and innovation, or even to see themselves as people who could take part.

PISA Results 2025

The PISA 2025 results show strong attainment in science among young people in the UK. Yet only 70% of UK students reported feeling that they belong at school, below average for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The tests also found a significant gender gap in science performance in the UK, with boys outperforming girls, while there was little difference across the OECD as a whole. These findings sit alongside the persistent gender imbalance in the UK’s STEM workforce, where women make up only around a quarter of employees.

Strong attainment does not necessarily mean that young people are experiencing school in ways that foster belonging, engagement or a sense of what science can offer them. The latest Public Attitudes to Science survey results, published in January, found that 16–24-year-olds were among the most informed about science, but also the most ambivalent about its role in society. Notably, 32% of respondence in this age bracket agreed that school had put them off science, compared with 23% of adults overall. 

Engineer and Technician Shortages 

Educational success does not automatically translate into engagement with the practice, possibilities and careers of research and innovation. As the Milburn Review interim report found, the UK faces a wider challenge in helping young people move successfully from education into work, while employers report shortages of engineers, technicians and people with strong transferable skills. The question is not simply whether enough young people study STEM, but whether education gives them the knowledge, skills and experience to pursue research and innovation pathways. 

If the UK is serious about its ambitions, it must ask not only how much it invests in R&I, but whether education is enabling young people to take part in that future. Schools and colleges should be recognised and supported as part of the country’s R&I infrastructure: as places where future talent, capability and capacity are developed.