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UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Established on 1 April 2018 by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, UKRI brought nine organisations into one unified body.UKRI was created following a report by Sir Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society, who recommended the merger in order to increase integrative cross-disciplinary research.
Working in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities and government, its mission is to foster research and development within the United Kingdom and create a positive "impact" – "push the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding", "deliver economic impact" and "create social and cultural impact".The first Chief Executive Officer of UKRI was the immunologist Professor Sir Mark Walport.He was succeeded on 29 June 2020 by plant biologist Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser.