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Policy 18 Sep 2026
New UK research security fund expected to focus on universities
By Harriet Swain and Robin Bisson
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Image: Nadia L/peopleimages.com , via Adobe Stock
Government responds to sector calls for more support in meeting costs of stricter security regime
A new government research security fund is expected to help universities meet the rising costs of protecting research from hostile actors and other threats.
As research security has risen up the policy agenda, and institutions have been encouraged to integrate more closely with UK defence and security, there have been calls from university groups for more financial support.
In a response to a House of Commons science committee report published earlier this week , the government confirmed it will “launch a Research Security Fund to support research security risk management and protective security measures in UK research institutions”.
Andrew James, professor of innovation management and policy at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at the University of Manchester, told Research Professional News: “My understanding is that a very large proportion of the research security fund is going to be to support universities either individually or in groups to enhance their capabilities.”
A study by the Association of Research Managers and Administrators in 2023 found research security was then costing the sector in the UK between £9.5 million and £10.8m per year depending on the complexity of cases but this figure is now likely to be far higher as threats—and institutions’ response to them—have increased.
Upskilling staff
James and colleagues published a report earlier this month on building resilience in international research collaboration, which said a new fund could strengthen specialist capacity in universities by upskilling existing professional services staff and training new ones in research security. It could also be used to sponsor “scientifically robust research-on-research security”, the report said.
A separate report on research security published on 17 September by the international affairs think tank Chatham House said the new research security fund should be structured around two pillars: sector-wide initiatives and targeted institutional capability-building. The report says the fund should enable institutions to “establish and grow research security teams” alongside investing in tighter security systems.
Strategy incoming
The government has also said it will release its long-awaited research security strategy by the end of this year, which will “set out a single government view of research security and support a more coordinated approach across government and the sector”.
“This work will help strengthen the guidance, information-sharing and support available to institutions as they navigate research security risks,” the government said.
The Chatham House report said the challenge for the government is to develop a strategy that “enables universities to remain globally connected and open” while protecting the UK’s advantages in science and technology.
Role for REF?
It says research security should become embedded in the Research Excellence Framework, which makes “no reference to research security or to institutional management of the risks associated with international collaboration on sensitive research topics”.
“The REF should explicitly recognise adherence to best-practice research security as a metric indicating a strong research environment,” the report says.
It also says high research security standards will become more important as the sector becomes more embedded in the UK’s defence industrial strategy, warning that “perceptions of poor security practices will have an increasingly deleterious impact on an institution’s ability to qualify for government grants”.
Research-on-research security
Nicola Searle, an innovation scholar specialising in intellectual property and research security at Goldsmiths, University of London, said it was “great that the government is recognising this is an area that won’t develop without funding” and that “for the fund to be strategic, it needs to cover both research-on-research security and the professional services and operational side of the research security ecosystem”.
“The extent and mechanisms of research security threats and breaches are poorly understood,” Searle added. “A key element of research strategy involves understanding the problem, and funding for research-on-research security is an important start.”
View this article on Research Professional