University leaders have expressed disappointment over reports that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is likely to be abolished as part of a governmental reorganisation as Andy Burnham becomes prime minister.
Media reports over the weekend suggest the department, which was officially established by Rishi Sunak in February 2023, will be subsumed into the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which looks set to be led by chief whip Jonathan Reynolds.
At present, responsibility for universities are split between the Department for Education (DfE), and the DSIT, with the latter’s £13.9 billion budget in 2025-25 including some £8.8 billion for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and a further £2.7 billion for the UK’s contribution to European Union programmes.
The stand-alone science department was initially set up to drive the UK’s “science superpower” ambition, but its secretary of state under Labour – Peter Kyle and then Liz Kendall – have increasingly focused on artificial intelligence and preventing social media harm, with science minister Patrick Vallance seen as driving science policy.
In a comment on Linkedin, the University of Birmingham’s vice-chancellor Adam Tickell said he hoped the “rumours of DSIT’s demise are unfounded”, arguing that a return to DBT would mean “universities and the research system will be a small cog in a large DBT wheel”.
