UKRI Strategy Virtual Townhall – Tuesday 24 March 2026

UKRI is hosting a virtual town hall on Tuesday 24 March, from 3pm to 4pm, where CEO Professor Sir Ian Chapman will outline our new mission and upcoming five-year strategy.

Ian will be joined by an executive panel including Professor Dame Jessica Corner (Executive Chair of Research England) and Stian Westlake (Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council). A Q&A session will follow. Please do come and join us, you can register here: UKRI Strategy Virtual Townhall – Tuesday 24 March 2026. Registration closes at 5pm on Monday 23 March.

Our new mission is to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth, along with major changes to how UKRI allocates funding and manages budgets. This approach will be underpinned by transparent decision making, clearer capital allocation, a stronger focus on growth, and sharper alignment with societal and government priorities.

Our partners across the research and innovation ecosystem will be critical in helping us deliver against our mission and strategy. Through this Townhall, we would like to share with you our vision for the future and hear your perspectives on this new approach. This Townhall forms part of a wider series of engagement UKRI is delivering on the Strategy, to seek views from across the community, through regional roundtables, webinars and leadership updates.

We are asking for questions to be submitted in advance, through the form, so we can prepare and answer them thematically during the session. There is also an option to submit a question without attending, so your thoughts can still be brought into the discussion. The session will also be recorded and shared after the event.

Please could you also share this Townhall with your stakeholder networks and encourage them to come along too.