Digital and Technologies Sector Plan: Year One Update

Ministerial Foreword

Scientific and technological discovery are on the coronary heart of this nation’s nationwide story. We are a rustic that prizes innovation and creativity, with a proud historical past of delivering the breakthroughs that constructed the trendy world. But that world is altering quick and rising applied sciences are reshaping the worldwide economic system and the way in which we dwell our lives.

Meeting at this time’s challenges calls for an energetic, strategic state that companions with enterprise to harness technological change and drives alternative and progress. That is why we revealed the UK’s first ever long-term plan for our Digital and Technologies sector as a part of the federal government’s Modern Industrial Strategy final yr. In it, we set out a decade-long ambition to construct the UK’s strategic, technological capabilities and make this nation the very best place on the planet to begin and scale an modern expertise enterprise. This replace units out the progress we’re making on delivering in opposition to this plan.

The occasions of the final yr have solely served to re-affirm the significance of this mission, because the tempo of technological change continues to speed up. In the 12 months because the Industrial Strategy was revealed, we’ve witnessed additional, main technological breakthroughs – from the rise of agentic AI and the emergence of highly effective new AI fashions, to main advances in direction of dependable quantum processing and exceptional progress in harnessing biology to engineer new options.

The UK should be each a house for invention and concepts and a globally aggressive vacation spot for funding, scale-up and exploitation of the applied sciences of the longer term if we need to construct prosperity that’s lasting and safe. We can’t look forward to others to form and personal the applied sciences that may outline our economic system and society. In an more and more unsure world, we should redouble our work with worldwide companions and allies to construct on the UK’s strengths and form these applied sciences round our values.

The sector plan is our blueprint for the way we’ll make this occur. It is our plan to make sure that the UK stays on the forefront of this technological revolution to drive financial progress and productiveness for everybody’s profit. One yr in, we’ve already made important progress and are spearheading reforms to R&D funding by UKRI, driving enterprise funding by the brand new Sovereign AI fund, and have introduced 5 new Digital and Technologies Technical Excellence Colleges throughout the UK.

But that is only the start and we all know there may be extra to do to ship on our ambitions and help UK science and expertise firms in an more and more aggressive international market. That additionally means evolving our strategy in session with companies, universities and different stakeholders and adapting to the quickly altering international context. That is why we’ve gone additional and quicker up to now yr with daring commitments to speculate as much as £1 billion to acquire large-scale quantum computer systems by the early 2030s, develop into the quickest adopter of AI within the G7, and ship main new reforms to tax and authorities procurement to help tech-based innovation, as set out within the Entrepreneurship Prospectus.

The Lord Vallance of Balham
Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology

1. Delivery highlights

View the delivery highlights source data in an accessible format.

2. Introduction

One yr in the past, we revealed the primary devoted plan for the UK’s Digital and Technologies sector in our Modern Industrial Strategy. The plan set out an formidable, 10-year imaginative and prescient to make the UK one of many prime 3 locations on the planet to create, spend money on, and scale up a fast-growing expertise enterprise, and to safe the UK’s first trillion-dollar expertise firm.

The sector plan backs 6 frontier applied sciences with the best potential to develop the economic system and increase UK strategic benefit: superior connectivity applied sciences, synthetic intelligence (AI), cyber safety, engineering biology, quantum applied sciences, and semiconductors. It units out an energetic and strategic strategy to ship the interventions and help these applied sciences have to flourish, alongside reforms to the broader enterprise surroundings.

In the previous 12 months, we’ve delivered on the commitments set out within the sector plan however have additionally expanded our ambition. We have set out report public funding in R&D to again applied sciences on the earliest stage, together with committing nearly £4 billion of funding to the frontier technologies by UK Research and Innovation till 2029/30. We have launched the largest skills drive in a generation on AI, increasing our ambition to achieve 10 million staff. We have expanded the British Business Bank, introduced tax reforms to encourage frontier expertise firms to begin, scale and keep within the UK, and pushed regulatory reform by the Regulatory Innovation Office. We are delivering world-class infrastructure, together with by telecoms infrastructure that’s elementary to our digital economic system. And, earlier this yr, we introduced as much as £2 billion to determine the UK as a world-leader in quantum, together with investing in abilities and expertise, analysis, and a world-first commitment to procure large scale quantum computers within the early 2030s.

At the identical time, altering geopolitical realities have underlined the necessary function of Digital and Technologies in supporting nationwide resilience and safety. In response, we’re redoubling our deal with rising the UK’s strategic capabilities. We have launched Sovereign AI, a £500 million new sovereign venture fund to scale firms within the UK with its first fairness funding within the AI infrastructure firm Callosum. We have revealed the AI Hardware Plan to again British firms creating the chips and semiconductor applied sciences behind AI. We have revealed the Cyber Growth Action Plan to spice up the UK cyber safety trade and are scaling the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, considerably rising annual funding to spend money on strategic science and expertise firms.

We have delivered on our dedication to work in partnership with companies, universities and different stakeholders: for instance, working with DSIT’s Quantum Technologies Strategic Advisory Board on our ambitious quantum programme, and with the Semiconductor Advisory Panel on the brand new UK Semiconductors Centre headquartered in King’s Cross.

But we all know there may be way more to do and our ambitions don’t cease right here. This replace units out what we’ve achieved up to now in unlocking economy-wide measures to spice up expertise progress and innovation, and the centered help we’re delivering for every of the sector plan’s 6 frontier applied sciences. It additionally outlines our subsequent steps and the place we’ll go additional as we transfer into yr 2 of our decade-long dedication to the sector.

3. Unlocking economy-wide measures to spice up Digital and Technologies sector progress

Realising our ambition for the sector means taking a whole-of-government strategy to create the situations for modern digital and expertise companies to thrive. The sector plan set out how we’ll deploy authorities’s wider levers to reform the enterprise surroundings, making higher use of our powers in areas comparable to regulation, authorities procurement, infrastructure and abilities to carry applied sciences from the lab to the market. In the Government’s Entrepreneurship Prospectus (revealed in November 2025) we went past the commitments made within the sector plan, with additional reforms to the British Business Bank and the tax methods to again our modern digital and expertise companies.

Boosting R&D funding

To again the event of frontier applied sciences from the earliest stage, we’ve undertaken probably the most important reform of UKRI since its institution, strengthening its deal with financial progress and authorities priorities. Alongside this, we’ve:

• Invested nearly £4 billion until 2029/30 in UKRI funding to again R&D in our frontier applied sciences, with over £1.5 billion for AI, over £1 billion for quantum, £643 million for engineering biology, and £718 million throughout superior connectivity applied sciences, semiconductors, and cyber safety.
• Begun to rework Innovate UK – the federal government’s innovation funding company – to offer extra focused, bespoke support for high-potential businesses in Digital and Technologies and different Industrial Strategy sectors, linking innovators with public finance establishments together with the National Wealth Fund and the British Business Bank.

Improved entry to finance

The UK is the main vacation spot for enterprise capital in Europe, capturing a report 48% of European VC funding so far in 2026. We are making report public finance out there to assist modern expertise companies scale within the UK and crowd-in personal funding. We have established the National Wealth Fund (£27.8 billion whole capitalisation), expanded the British Business Bank (£25.6 billion whole capitalisation) and launched a brand new £4 billion Industrial Strategy Growth Capital Initiative. We are additionally driving reforms to consolidate the pension market, together with by the current Pension Schemes Act 2026. Alongside this, we’ve:

Increasing the abilities of the workforce

We are enterprise main reforms of the abilities system to make sure the workforce pipeline helps the sector. We have introduced 5 new Digital and Technologies Technical Excellence Colleges throughout the UK and we’re deploying the Growth and Skills Levy to again shorter, extra versatile coaching for adults in precedence areas together with AI and digital. Alongside this, we’ve:

• Kickstarted ‘AI Skills Boost’, the most important abilities drive in a technology to ship on the federal government’s expanded dedication to upskill 10 million staff by free entry to foundational coaching in AI, with over 1.7 million courses accomplished since June 2025.
• Begun supply of the £54 million Global Talent Fund by bringing a brand new cohort of main worldwide researchers to the UK, strengthening precedence sectors and supporting progress.
• Launched a visa fee reimbursement scheme for scale-ups in Digital and Technologies and different Industrial Strategy sectors and a targeted fast-track referral scheme for Expansion Worker sponsor licences to speed up high-potential companies getting into the UK market.
• Launched the federal government’s TechFirst abilities programme to assist 2,000 deprived individuals into jobs in frontier applied sciences this yr, began new pathways for younger individuals prone to turning into not in schooling, employment or coaching (NEET) into AI apprenticeships, reached over 100,000 younger individuals in faculties throughout the UK, and awarded top-up stipends to 500 British and house doctoral college students to strengthen sovereign expertise.
• Established the inaugural TechFirst Women’s Programme and introduced Darren Hardman, UK Microsoft CEO, as the TechFirst Social Mobility champion.
• Announced the Early Careers Jobs Alliance to carry collectively authorities, employers, commerce unions and younger individuals to map how AI is altering entry-level work and help younger individuals to get into the workforce, starting with the Digital and Technologies Sector.

Enhanced infrastructure

We are investing within the world-class infrastructure wanted to underpin expertise progress throughout the nation. This contains telecoms, which offers elementary connectivity underpinning the digital economic system as an entire, enabling companies and companies to function, driving productiveness positive factors, and enabling the UK to harness rising applied sciences comparable to AI. We have introduced 5 AI Growth Zones to create localised AI infrastructure throughout the UK and stimulate funding. Alongside this, we’ve:

• Announced reductions to electrical energy payments for eligible Digital and Technologies producers by the brand new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) and expanded Supercharger scheme.
• Completed nearly all of 5G Innovation Regions projects, with over £46 million of funding awarded to 10 areas throughout the UK.
• Delivered 95% 4G protection of the UK landmass by the Shared Rural Network.
• Amended laws to permit information centres to be directed into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, the place the Secretary of State decides on functions for improvement consent.

Delivering pro-innovation regulation

To help our pioneering digital and applied sciences ecosystem and velocity up entry to marketplace for cutting-edge applied sciences, the federal government’s Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) is supporting regulators to speed up innovation, assess protected AI and frontier expertise innovation and tackle limitations to adoption, investing roughly £11.5 million into regulatory experimentation. ^{Through the Regulating for Growth Bill, the federal government will create powers to make fast, momentary amendments to regulation to securely pilot and deploy AI to handle regulatory uncertainty, sector by sector, by statutory sandboxes, together with the statutory AI Growth Lab. Alongside this, we’ve:}

• RIO has partnered with IBM, to co-host an AI Hackathon to develop AI options to frequent regulatory limitations with attendees from over 55 organisations.
• Supported AI adoption by funding the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum’s ‘digital library’ to assist companies navigate related regulation.
• Hosted the UK’s first Digital Standards Summit in Glasgow with as much as 800 attendees from 50 international locations, the place the Minister introduced the forthcoming publication of a Digital Standards Strategy.
• Responded to the call for evidence on a Smart Data scheme in digital markets, with a session on designing a scheme deliberate for later this yr.
• Launched the advisory AI Growth Labs, first specializing in authorized companies and LegislationTech. The Lab will carry collectively the Information Commissioners Office, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and the Solicitors Regulation Authority to offer sensible steering on how present guidelines apply to rising AI functions.

Developed focused worldwide partnerships

We are deepening our collaboration with international companions and placing new agreements to assist scale UK applied sciences globally and anchor funding and market entry. In the previous yr, we’ve agreed strategic science and innovation partnerships with Germany and the Netherlands. Alongside this, we’ve:

Improved authorities procurement of innovation

Government spends nearly £400 billion yearly on procurement. ^{We are making authorities departments a greater buyer for cutting-edge applied sciences, with wide-reaching reforms to help modern firms. We have:}

• Made a world-first dedication of as much as £1 billion to acquire massive scale quantum computer systems within the early 2030s. The first section of ProQure, our programme to establish, develop, and deploy world-leading quantum computing capabilities, is now dwell.
• Announced a community of Innovation Champions by our Commercial Innovation Hub, a cross-government centre of excellence for pioneering new approaches to public procurement. The Hub has additionally supported particular person procurements comparable to a demonstration-led competitors on AI to enhance planning choices and a first-of-its-kind market-boosting procurement to again UK-based EdTech firms to design the following technology of protected and efficient AI instruments.
• Launched 11 procurement-focused analysis and innovation challenges underneath the R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, from figuring out particular academic wants and diagnosing dementia quicker to serving to households and companies scale back peak power demand.
• Worked to ship the dedication to spend 10% of the MOD’s equipment procurement budget on novel technologies which will likely be set out within the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan.

Driven the adoption of frontier applied sciences

To be sure that the advantages of frontier applied sciences are subtle throughout the economic system, we’ve appointed professional AI Champions throughout Industrial Strategy sectors and revealed their unbiased sector plans. We have dedicated over £200 million for AI adoption, which will likely be used to ship main suggestions from the AI Champions’ plans and increase InnovateUK’s BridgeAI programme throughout the Industrial Strategy sectors Alongside this, we’ve:

• Launched the AI Economics Institute, chaired by Nobel Prize successful economist Simon Johnson, to construct the proof base wanted to know and reply to the financial impacts of synthetic intelligence adoption, together with on jobs and progress.
• Launched a Quantum Growth Alliance of main UK corporates to galvanise the adoption of quantum applied sciences inside Industrial Strategy sectors.
• Published the Trusted Third-Party AI Assurance Roadmap, established the AI Assurance Innovation Fund, launched the Centre for AI Measurement on the National Physical Laboratory. We convened the AI Assurance Stakeholder Consortium, chaired by BCS (the Chartered Institute for IT) to put the foundations for professionalising AI assurance and tackle market limitations to assist ship AI individuals can belief.

4. Supporting our frontier applied sciences

Advanced Connectivity Technologies

Advanced Connectivity Technologies (ACT) and the networks they underpin allow the transmission of information in our more and more digitised economic system and society. The UK’s world-leading ACT capabilities span all of the 4 nations and have a crucial function to play in connecting trade, authorities and residents. ACT firms employed approximately 109,400 people in the UK and generated £13.2 billion in GVA in 2025. UK ACT income is estimated to develop from £32.9 billion in 2025 to £62.8 billion by 2031.

In the sector plan, we dedicated to spend money on ACT analysis and strengthen our world-class laboratory infrastructure, guarantee spectrum availability helps ACT domestically and internationally, and deepen our collaboration with different ACT-leading international locations. Over the previous yr, we’ve:

Artificial Intelligence

AI is a transformative expertise that’s already altering the worldwide economic system, revolutionising healthcare and science, and enhancing how public companies are delivered. The UK has the largest AI sector in Europe and the third largest globally. Since this authorities took workplace, AI firms have pledged funding of practically £100 billion within the UK.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan (January 2025) outlined how we’ll seize this transformation to profit our economic system and society. Our January 2026 replace on the motion plan set out our decisive transfer from ambition to supply. The Digital and Technologies Sector Plan dedicated to construct on this ambition by scaling the UK’s public sector AI Research Resource, making a Sovereign AI enterprise fund, selling AI adoption, accelerating AI-enabled scientific breakthroughs, and delivering a brand new framework for AI and copyright.

Over the previous yr, we’ve:

• Established 5 AI Growth Zones throughout the UK which is able to generate £28.2 billion in investment and create more than 15,000 jobs. We are concentrating on areas with higher power capability and pioneering low-carbon approaches to energy them, together with the UK’s first small modular reactor and a renewables-powered microgrid.
• Launched Sovereign AI, the brand new £500 million enterprise fund backing nice British founders with the capital, compute and weight of the federal government to begin and scale within the UK, and win globally. Sovereign AI has already made 3 fairness investments and allotted over 3 million GPU hours of compute to startups.
• Announced £750 million for a new national AI supercomputer together with as much as £400 million to buy subsequent technology AI chips, of which £150 million is an advance dedication to purchase novel chips from modern startups and British companies on the chopping fringe of chip design.
• Started supply of our enlargement of the AI Research Resource capability, backed by over £1 billion in funding. We launched the Isambard-AI supercomputer in July 2025 and introduced a £36 million funding within the new Zenith supercomputer, which is able to be a part of Dawn, on the University of Cambridge delivering a six-fold improve in capability. We will quickly be launching the tender course of for the following National Supercomputer in Edinburgh, set to be the UK’s strongest. The UK Atomic Energy Authority additionally introduced £45 million to construct the world’s most powerful supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy, which is because of launch later this yr.
• Published the AI for Science Strategy, backed by as much as £137 million of funding, and set the UK’s first AI for science mission to harness AI to hurry up discovery of medicine and therapies.
• Published a report and impact assessment on AI and copyright and set out the place we’ll focus the following section of this work.

Cyber Security

Cyber safety is prime to our financial stability and protects the expertise we depend on each day. The UK has an internationally famend cyber trade employing nearly 70,000 people and generating £9.1 billion in GVA in 2025. This is a quickly evolving subject the place authorities is partnering immediately with trade to make sure the UK’s cybersecurity structure is agile within the face of evolving expertise – for instance, by the AI Safety Institute’s current work to stress-test highly effective new AI fashions like Anthropic’s Mythos.

In the sector plan, we dedicated to help UK cyber capabilities by publishing the Cyber Growth Action Plan, investing within the commercialisation of cyber analysis, supporting startups, rising home expertise, and selling the adoption of applied sciences which are cyber safe by design. Over the previous yr, we’ve:

• Published the UK Cyber Growth Action Plan to construct broader help for the function of Cyber in defending and rising our economic system. We will shortly publish the federal government’s response in our National Cyber Strategy.
• Introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill into Parliament to enhance UK cyber defences.
• Launched the government Cyber Action Plan with £210 million in funding to quickly enhance the cyber resilience of presidency departments and public companies.
• Invested £1.8 million in 21 projects across 9 English regions as a part of Cyber Local, our programme to help native cyber abilities and ecosystems.
• Delivered one other profitable cohort of CyberASAP to assist lecturers commercialise their analysis and expanded Cyber Runway, authorities’s cyber accelerator for UK entrepreneurs and startups. CyberASAP alumni have secured £47 million in put up‑programme funding over the previous 9 years.
• Secured remaining planning consent for the National Cyber Security Centre in Cheltenham, with building attributable to start this summer time.
• The Cyber-AI Hub in Belfast has delivered 5 minimum viable products and proof of concepts with trade by its collaborative R&D Technologies Hub.
• Brought CHERI, a {hardware} primarily based cyber safety expertise developed within the UK, into industrial readiness and secured trade backing to deploy it in sensible meters, drones, routers and different linked gadgets, defending in opposition to the reminiscence security flaws behind round 70% of software program vulnerabilities.
• Announced a £90 million fund to incentivise and help the adoption of cyber safety requirements comparable to Cyber Essentials and authorities’s codes of follow, and present focused help to precedence sectors such because the NHS and small and medium enterprises to strengthen provide chain resilience.

Engineering Biology

Engineering biology applied sciences are reworking industries as various as healthcare, trend and textiles, and low-carbon fuels. The UK’s engineering biology ecosystem is the strongest globally outdoors the US and China.

In the sector plan, we dedicated to spend money on engineering biology analysis and launch a novel programme to fund scale-up infrastructure, speed up regulatory reform, and form the worldwide surroundings to make sure the UK stays a precedence vacation spot for funding. Over the previous yr, we’ve:

• Committed a complete UKRI investment of £643 million toward Engineering Biology. This represents a rise of £263 million on our preliminary sector plan commitments to an R&D programme and a scale-up infrastructure programme.
• Expanded and prolonged the Engineering Biology Mission awards with £20 million funding, introduced over £12 million to deliver further doctoral training, and delivered our third Engineering Biology accelerator programme in collaboration with Science Creates.
• Announced the Engineering Biology Value Chain Growth Fund, a focused £45 million fund to help foundational capabilities and construct UK sovereignty in engineering biology.
• Established the Engineering Biology Innovation Network to foster partnerships and alternatives for UK innovators and begun a UK-wide public dialogue on engineering biology with ScienceWise.
• Worked alongside the Regulatory Innovation Office with trade and regulators to undertake an agile strategy to regulation. We have made reforms by the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund together with launching a undertaking led by the Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on engineered bacteriophage merchandise, an modern answer to antibiotic resistance, and funding the Food Standards Agency to launch a steering portal and enterprise help companies on cell-cultivated and precision fermented merchandise.
• Conducted commerce missions to Japan and Korea and co-hosted a landmark accountable innovation multi-stakeholder occasion by the OECD.
• Commenced the secondary laws to implement The Genetics Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 for crops in England, a significant milestone in regulatory reform for precision breeding, encouraging innovation and enabling merchandise to be dropped at market extra simply.

Quantum Technologies

Quantum has monumental potential to reinforce our prosperity and safety. The UK is house to 3 of the top 5 quantum technology clusters globally. By 2045, quantum may ship 100,000 high-paid jobs across the country and add up to £212 billion to our economy.

The sector plan dedicated to sharpen the UK’s aggressive edge by progressing the UK’s 5 National Quantum Missions, supporting the National Quantum Computing Centre, creating a quantum abilities plan with the sector, and supporting companies by entry to infrastructure and enhancing the regulatory surroundings. Over the previous yr, we’ve:

• Pledged over £1 billion to progress our National Quantum Missions to construct the abilities, infrastructure, and enterprise surroundings for quantum firms to scale and rework sectors like healthcare, transport, and defence.

• Committed up to a further £1 billion to procure, large-scale quantum computers by the early 2030s, the primary dedication of its sort by any authorities that may improve public companies, drive innovation, and change lives.
• Launched a Quantum Growth Alliance of main UK corporates to galvanise the adoption of quantum applied sciences inside Industrial Strategy sectors
• Announced a £51.2 million investment in a new National Cryogenics Facility in Daresbury to drive next-generation cryogenic R&D to help quantum computing scale up.
• Hosted the Quantum Development Group in London, bringing collectively 13 like-minded international locations to strengthen worldwide cooperation. We have introduced funding for bilateral R&D collaboration with Canada, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands, in addition to launching a UK-Singapore quantum satellite tv for pc.
• Announced a brand new Quantum Commercialisation Skills Centre to help researchers to show their discoveries into real-world impression, and began a brand new TechFirst partnership with quantum firms to supply 100 funded internships.
• Convened main nationwide measurement establishments from all over the world to launch the NMI-Q initiative at National Physical Laboratory, laying the foundations for important pre-standardisation work for quantum.

Semiconductors

Semiconductors are a elementary expertise on the coronary heart of recent digital gadgets, and essential to the event of superior applied sciences like AI and quantum. The UK is house to the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster in Wales. Dedicated firms directly employed approximately 16,350 people and generated £7.5 billion in GVA in 2025. As a rustic, we’ve globally recognised strengths in chip research and design, compound semiconductors and next generation technologies.

In the sector plan, we dedicated to determine a UK Semiconductor Centre, fund Innovation and Knowledge Centres to carry chip applied sciences to market, increase the UK’s chip design capabilities, and enhance the UK semiconductor expertise pipeline. Over the previous yr, we’ve:

• Launched the UK Semiconductor Centre (UKSC) with a brand new headquarters in London. The UKSC has launched a abilities promotional marketing campaign, and an ecosystem and infrastructure database. It is bringing collectively trade, academia and authorities, and offering cross-sector management on semiconductor innovation, alongside ecosystem constructing and enterprise companies.
• Launched the AI Hardware Plan, to again British firms creating the chips and semiconductor applied sciences behind AI and spend money on the scientists, engineers and technicians wanted to show new concepts into merchandise and good jobs within the UK.
• Announced a £120 million funding in AI Hardware Innovation, as a part of the AI Hardware Plan, to take concepts from early analysis to constructing and testing prototypes.
• Delivered the primary yr of our UK-wide semiconductor abilities programme, offering faculties outreach throughout the UK and delivering 300 undergraduate bursaries. This has helped help an increase of around 14% in Electronic and Electrical Engineering enrolments between 2024 and 2025, the biggest yr on yr rise in over 5 years. ^{Through the AI Hardware Plan, we’ve increased our investment in the semiconductor skills programme to £48 million.}
• Established 2 new Innovation and Knowledge Centres in rising semiconductor applied sciences: Neuroware, led by University College London, in neuromorphic computing {hardware}; and CHIMES, led by Sheffield University, in heterogeneous integration system design.
• Launched the Semiconductor Industry Future Skills Centre for Doctoral Training, led by Swansea University, and dedicated an additional £12 million to a brand new Centre for Doctoral Training in Chip Design,
• Set up a pilot Chip Design Enablement Programme, delivered by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council, to help startups to entry and use leading edge chip design instruments.

5. Growing the Digital and Technologies sector throughout the UK

Cities and areas throughout the UK are important to our nationwide ambitions for the Digital and Technologies sector. Realising their full potential is a core goal of our fashionable Industrial Strategy and the Digital and Technologies sector plan.

We are investing within the Digital and Technologies sector all through the UK. In current years, UKRI funding has elevated considerably, rising by 18% between the 2021-22 monetary yr and the 2023-24 monetary yr. ^{Over this era, funding outdoors the Greater South East elevated extra quickly than inside it. In the 2023-24 monetary yr, half of funding was invested outdoors the Greater South East. Over the following 4 years, UKRI will construct on this report stage of funding to go additional in supporting all nations and areas of the UK.}

Over the previous yr, we’ve invested in particular programmes together with:

Forward Look

Metrics

We have established a sturdy framework to watch and consider supply of the sector plan and have recognized 5 main metrics to evaluate progress. We have drawn on a number of information sources which are out there to replace on preliminary progress, together with new and experimental approaches to handle proof gaps; for instance, the company-based definition launched within the Digital and Technologies statistical release . Some metrics are topic to information lags.

1. By 2035, we could have maintained and constructed a powerful ecosystem of digital and expertise companies throughout the UK

• Number of companies by dimension: 107,082 energetic digital and expertise firms, with small firms (fewer than 50 staff) accounting for 95%.

• Gross Value Added (GVA): £158 billion in 2024 (6% of the UK whole).

2. By 2035, we could have helped new, modern and R&D-intensive expertise companies to scale quickly

3. By 2035, we could have supported a pro-innovation surroundings for digital and expertise companies

• Patenting exercise: 1,521 patents granted in 2024, 41% of IPO whole.

• University spinouts: 655 spinouts as of April 2026, representing 30% of the UK whole.

4. By 2035, we could have constructed a extremely expert workforce for digital and expertise companies

• Employment: 1.33 million individuals in 2024 (6% of the overall for UK firms).

• Wages: Average wages of £56,000 in 2024 (50% larger than UK median earnings).

• Productivity: £119,000 GVA per worker in 2024 (53% larger than UK common).

5. By 2035, we could have attracted worldwide funding in our Digital and Technologies sector and accessed related alternatives in international markets

• International fairness funding: Mixed UK-foreign offers accounted for 58% of D&T fairness funding with identified investor origin in 2025, in contrast with 30% for foreign-only offers and 12% for domestic-only offers.

• Deal dimension by investor origin: Mixed UK-foreign offers had been round 10 times larger than domestic-only offers in 2025, whereas foreign-only offers had been round 12 times larger than domestic-only offers.

Annex: Delivery highlights infographic – sources

• £4bn: UK Research and Innovation (2025) Budget allocations for UK Research and Innovation.

• £1bn: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) UK’s “Quantum leap” to help beat disease, deliver high-paid jobs, and strengthen national security, as first country in the world to roll out Quantum computers at scale.

• £500m: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) AI firms pioneering drug discovery, cheaper supercomputing and more get first backing through UK’s Sovereign AI.

• 10m: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) Interim government response to the AI Champions’ AI Adoption Plans.

• £137m: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2025) AI for Science Strategy.

• Over 100,000: The determine is derived by aggregating the variety of younger individuals reached by completely different TechFirst programmes since June 2025:
  (1) 64,437 attended in-person CyberFirst occasions delivered by regional companions (supply: National Cyber Security Centre inside monitoring information, primarily based on month-to-month attendance returns submitted by regional supply companions protecting younger individuals aged 18 and underneath from June 2025);
  (2) over 10,800 participated within the Girls Competition (supply: IBM inside information, November 2025);
  (3) 29,965 new learners registered on the Cyber Explorers platform (supply: Cyber Explorers management information). To observe, there could also be overlap between individuals throughout these programmes.

• Sector statistics (£158bn GVA, £408bn turnover, 1.33m employment, 53% larger productiveness, £8.3bn fairness funding, 655 college spinouts, 1,521 IPO patents): Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) Digital and Technologies Sector Statistics: Volume 1. Based on newest out there information and a brand new, dynamic company-level definition of the sector that considerably improves our measurements.

• Largest AI sector in Europe and third globally: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2025) AI Opportunities Action Plan.

• Third strongest engineering biology ecosystem on the planet: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2023) National vision for engineering biology.

• Three of the world’s prime 5 quantum clusters: ECIPE (2025) Quantum Clusters: Ranking the World’s Deep-Tech Epicentres.

• +17% cyber safety GVA progress: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) Cyber security sectoral analysis 2026. Year-on-year progress compares GVA between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 monetary years.

• +9% semiconductors GVA progress: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2026) Semiconductors Sector Study. Year-on-year progress compares GVA between the 2024 and 2025 calendar years.

View the delivery highlights infographic.