Research and innovation workforce survey

DSIT commissioned Ipsos to undertake research exploring the UK research and innovation workforce in all sectors. The Research and Innovation Workforce Survey was the first survey covering the wider research and innovation (R&I) workforce: as well as people doing basic, applied or experimental research we included people responsible for innovation around a product or service, or who introduce innovations to their organisation. We also included technicians, engineers, and leaders and managers of research and innovation teams.

The survey will help the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) improve strategic analysis of current and future R&I policies designed to develop talent and skills, attract people to work and remain in the UK R&I workforce and ensure that the working environment is diverse and inclusive.

The report covers several themes: 

• characteristics of the workforce
• background, skills, and career paths
• working conditions and career incentives / motivations
• impact and outcomes from work carried out, and barriers to achieving this impact

Recruitment and methodology

Due to the lack of an existing sample frame covering the R&I workforce, the research took the form of an online survey with an open link that could be shared widely. The survey was promoted via UKRI and Innovate UK mailing lists, social media, letters sent to businesses, and engagement with professional membership bodies, think tanks, charities and trade unions. 

The survey was officially launched on 2nd March 2022 and remained open until 13th May 2022. 7,519 eligible respondents completed the survey. To maximise completion rates,
we aimed for the survey to take a maximum of 20 minutes to complete, and the average time taken to complete it was 17 minutes.

Key findings 

Some of the key findings include: 

• 95% of people responding worked on basic research, applied research, or experimental development; half were also involved in innovation management; and one-third in market research.
• R&I workers need a variety of skills - 75% said that people and communication skills were the most important for their current job with the next highest skill needed being specialist and technical knowledge (67%) and leadership (61%).
• The top skills where further training and development are needed were commercial skills (38%), specialist skills (37%) and learning to use new technology (37%).
• The most frequent reasons non-British R&I workers gave for deciding to stay in the UK were: opportunity to work on a particular topic of interest (41%), research facilities/infrastructure (40%), opportunities for career progression/development (37%), to work with expert colleagues (34%), and UK culture/lifestyle (34%).
• Women are underrepresented in the R&I workforce and women and people from ethnic minorities felt less supported by their workplace on diversity and inclusion.
• Around half of private sector innovators created intellectual property (48%); prototypes or new products or processes (48%) or software and technical products (45%).

Click here to read the full report