The government's 2025 Spring Statement had varied implications for the GW4 Alliance universities (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, and Exeter) and the wider region.
While the economic data shows the difficult financial context in which the government will be making its Comprehensive Spending Review, it was disappointing that, as part of wider measures aimed at supporting more people into work and reskilling, the Chancellor did not address the gap in access to Government-backed childcare for postgraduate students. We believe that an expansion of provision has the clear potential to unlock opportunities for parents who are economically disadvantaged.
Against the backdrop of a changing world, the Chancellor’s focus on increased R&D funding and investment in AI is welcome. Our institutions have significant strengths in AI and digital research, and our region could have a key role to play in supporting government to grow this sector.
We hope that this is a sign that the government recognises the wider case for investing in R&D to stimulate economic growth, with Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) support for R&D continuing to, at the very least, be supported at current levels in the forthcoming Spending Review.
Growth and Innovation
GW4 welcomes the government’s proposals to ‘seize the opportunities of digital technology and Artificial Intelligence’, which will be supported through the creation of the £3.25 billion Transformation Fund.
Our region has significant AI capabilities and is well equipped to drive the application of AI on global challenges such as health and wellbeing, sustainable Net Zero and the climate emergency; all of which are areas aligned to GW4 core strategic priorities.
All four of our institutions are involved in the £12 million AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) Hub. Funded in 2024 by EPSRC, AI4CI is a five-year collaboration that will develop new machine learning and smart agent technologies fuelled by real-time data streams to achieve collective intelligence for individuals and national agencies across healthcare, pandemics, cities, finance, and environment.
Additionally, with the University of Bristol recently crowned ‘AI University of the Year’ at the National AI Awards in 2024, Bristol is also home to GW4 Isambard 3 supercomputer, a cross-alliance initiative and world-class service for AI and high-performance computing, as well as the £225 million Isambard-AI. Set for completion in summer 2025, Isambard AI forms part of the national Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (AIRR) and is set to become the UK’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer.
Childcare
Considering the government’s focus on driving economic growth and galvanising UK innovation, we are disappointed that the Spring Statement fails to include a recognition of the need for increase childcare provision for postgraduate researchers, as set out in our HEPI report and submission to Phase 2 of the Spending Review. GW4 continues to urge the government to extend the eligibility of undergraduate student childcare support schemes to include postgraduate students as a first-step to addressing the current gap in support.
Currently, students studying for Masters and PhDs are not eligible for Childcare Grants, which are in place for full-time undergraduates, to help with childcare costs for children under 15 years old. They are also unable to claim the childcare benefits available to workers unless they are in substantial paid employment in addition to their studies. For most parents, combining postgraduate study, substantial outside work, and childcare responsibilities is not feasible meaning they are not able to access the support.
The lack of access to childcare support for postgraduate students has clear impacts on the diversity of our innovation talent pipeline, meaning fewer people will have access to gain the skills and qualifications required for the innovative jobs our future economy will need in order to grow.
We look forward to seeing further detail behind the measures announced and understanding how they will be implemented in practice.
