The government has five national missions, to:
Kickstart Economic Growth
Build an NHS Fit for the Future
Safer Streets
Break Down the Barriers to Opportunity
Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) leads on the government's mission to Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower, working in close collaboration with other departments (see Section 1.1.3).
Research, development, and innovation (hereafter 'R&D') are critical enablers for achieving both pillars of the Clean Energy Superpower Mission (CESM): delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero by 2050. They provide the robust scientific evidence base for policy decisions and delivery, enable the successful innovation and scaling up of necessary technologies, and enhance productivity and economic growth. As estimated by the International Energy Agency, approximately 35% of the global emission reductions needed in 2050 to reach net zero rely on technologies that are not yet commercially available.
Areas of Research Interest documents (ARIs) set out research questions and evidence needs of government organisations. They are a key tool for shaping the research landscape - helping to align academic, industry, and public sector efforts with government priorities. This ARI document sets out the R&D needed to deliver the CESM, based on cross-government consensus. It captures the breadth of challenges and opportunities across both mission pillars and seeks to encourage more structured dialogue and collaboration with external stakeholders.
This ARI document is intended to support collaboration between government, academia, industry, and other research organisations. It sets out both the full thematic breadth of research areas relevant to the CESM and a focused set of priority R&D challenges where coordinated effort is most urgently required. Together, these provide a strategic framework to guide research investment, shape funding programmes, and inform policy development.
It can be used to:
Align research proposals with government priorities and identify areas of high impact.
Support dialogue between researchers and policymakers on emerging evidence
needs.
Inform funding decisions by enabling researchers to clearly link proposals to
government priorities.
Guide cross-sector collaboration by highlighting shared challenges and opportunities.
This ARI has been intentionally developed at a strategic level. While it captures the full breadth of research areas relevant to the mission, it does not aim to provide detailed R&D requirements. Instead, it offers directional guidance on the research considered most valuable at the time of assessment, rather than an exhaustive specification. As part of our future plan, we will define what success looks like and develop approaches to measure progress.
