The Science Budget is administered through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It was £3.1 billion in 2005-06 and rose to £3.45 billion in 2007-08. At Treasury’s request the Science Budget is ring fenced, which means that it can only be spent by OSI and funds cannot be used by other parts of the DTI.
This public funding is provided to contribute to the delivery of the Government’s objectives for science and innovation. The Research Councils receive the majority of the public funds each year from the Science Budget. Figures for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11 (the Spending Review 2007 period) are:
£2.9 billion in 2008-09
£3.0 billion in 2009-10
£3.2 billion in 2010-11
The remainder of the Science Budget funding is deployed either by BIS (and includes the Large Facilities Capital Fund and the Science Research Infrastructure Fund) or allocated to the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering or the British Academy.
During 2005-06 to 2007-08 the Science Budget was deployed to deliver the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills's (now BIS) Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to:
"Improve the relative international performance of the UK research base and improve the overall innovation performance of the UK economy including through effective knowledge transfer amongst universities, research institutions and business"
The Research Councils’ contribution to delivering the PSA target is captured through a Performance Management Framework