Research and analysis

DBT areas of research interest

Updated 18 March 2026

Foreword

Foreword from Professor Julia Sutcliffe, DBT Chief Scientific Adviser

As Chief Scientific Adviser, I am delighted to introduce the Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) areas of research interest (ARI). It is a statement of our evidence priorities and an open invitation for engagement with the research and innovation community.

At DBT, our mission is to drive economic growth, foster innovation, and ensure the UK remains a world-leading destination for business and investment. Achieving this requires a robust, forward-looking evidence base that informs policy and underpins our Industrial Strategy. This information will help us develop and deliver policies that support the growth of frontier sectors and high growth firms across the UK.  

Our ARI set out the crucial questions where new research, insight, and collaboration can have the greatest impact on DBT’s objectives. Developed through extensive consultation with policy, analytical, and scientific colleagues, and informed by best practice across government, these ARI reflect the collaborative ethos central to our approach.

It is not an exhaustive list, but a focused set of enduring priorities where external expertise can complement our internal analysis and help shape the future of UK business, trade, and innovation. The ARI will help us gather the evidence to support complex supply chains that underpin our economy, showing the breadth of expertise and research we need to deliver policy outcomes in an increasingly complex and inter-connected world.

Central to our approach is a commitment to engagement. We recognise that effective policymaking relies on a complex ecosystem of expertise, and we are eager to work in partnership with academia, industry, and other stakeholders. Whether you have evidence to share, are undertaking relevant research, or wish to collaborate on emerging challenges, your insights are invaluable.

By working together, we can ensure that DBT’s policies are using the best available evidence, supporting our ambition to make the UK a global leader in innovation that drives economic growth.

Foreword from Ben Cropper, DBT Director of Analysis

High quality, insightful and innovative analysis drawn from a variety of sources is a crucial part of effective policy making and operational implementation. This is critical to achieving DBT’s priorities to accelerate the UK’s leadership in future growth sectors, deepen and expand strategic trade relationships, and build economic resilience.

Our evidence and analysis is at the heart of the recently published Industrial and Trade strategies, as well as all our important programmes, which deliver bold interventions to support businesses investment, growth, trade and resilience, driving visible economic growth for all. 

DBT has a strong research programme and is committed to working with a wide range of stakeholders from across government and with external experts. This will ensure that decisions continue to be based on the highest quality, timely and relevant evidence. DBT’s ARI are a critical part of our external engagement activities and responses will further enrich the department’s evidence base.

I am therefore pleased to be able to introduce DBT’s refreshed ARI, setting out some of the essential questions that we would like to work with external experts to answer. The evidence provided in response to the ARI will help inform the delivery of our objectives to support businesses to grow, reset old and build new trade relationships, champion UK exports and make work pay by delivering a new deal for working people. The ARI will also help us find the most innovative and cutting-edge approaches to support our analysis and develop our people.

I’d be delighted for you to engage with the new ARI questions and would also welcome broader engagement and collaboration where your research relates to any of DBT’s objectives or areas of work which are not included in the ARI. Tell us the questions that we did not know we needed to answer. The remainder of this document sets out our ARI questions and explains how you can work with us. I look forward to hearing from and collaborating with you.

Executive summary

DBT’s ARI set out a range of long-term questions that the department welcomes the contribution of evidence on, focusing on informing future policy and decision-making in top priority areas for the department. They offer a framework for establishing and maintaining long-term engagement and collaboration with the academic and research community, encouraging academics and researchers from any discipline to explore and contribute.

Evidence and research are essential mechanisms to deliver policy that is inclusive, effective and resilient. The ARI are not an exhaustive list and sit alongside our other analytical and scientific publications and processes.

DBT is the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. The ARI will work towards delivering our top priority of driving visible economic growth for all through bold interventions. Our strategic objectives are to:

• accelerate global UK leadership in future growth sectors
• deepen and expand strategic trade relationships
• build economic resilience and stabilise sectors in distress

DBT will deliver these objectives by framing thinking around our most important areas of policy development.

Accelerate global UK leadership in future growth sectors

UK intellectual property and research is renowned, and the government is dedicated to giving UK businesses the support they need to seize opportunities in the world’s largest economies and highest potential markets. DBT will cultivate competitive markets and reduce barriers to entry across the UK so that firms can start up and scale into businesses with secure supply chains, skilled workforces, resilient customer bases, and the funding to thrive.

As part of this, we recognise the value innovation has on business efficiency and the economy as a whole. We are working to create new opportunities in existing sectors of strength, encouraging the adoption and diffusion of technology across the entire economy, sharing risk with innovators, and creating competitive advantage for first movers who create novel products or are quickest to harness new technologies. We want to do this in a manner that protects consumers, and ensures the labour market is sufficiently flexible and robust.

Our evidence base must use and build on available knowledge to grow and take advantage of our innovative clusters, boost funding schemes for research and development (R&D), catalyse collaboration across sectors, and accelerate commercialisation.

This requires understanding which factors hinder or support the economic growth of all segments of the economy, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), identifying and adopting interventions, and agile regulations that help them to succeed. We want to better understand how to measure the impact that access to finance, including grants, venture capital markets, and government-backed support, has on scale-up efforts.

Deepen and expand strategic trade relationships

Businesses must be equipped to seize opportunities and navigate challenges in global trade and investment, supporting DBT’s ambition to reset trade relations and champion UK exports. To trade effectively, we need to challenge familiar rules of trade and be pragmatic, agile, and smart. By engaging strategically with partners, using modern trade tools, and projecting our national interests we are supporting businesses to export and attract investment.

To best achieve this, we need to understand how UK businesses respond to changes and improvements in market access, breaking down results by sector, business demographic, and type of barrier to overcome. Consequences of geopolitical risks may impact businesses’ ability to trade, therefore, being able to map and track configuration of trade routes and formulation of investment strategies will be crucial to continuing our success of delivering growth-focused policies.

Build economic resilience and stabilise sectors in distress

Uncertainty, shifting geopolitical landscapes, and market pressures can result in decreased resilience for businesses and the wider economy. We are working to increase economic security and resilience to create opportunities and allow UK sectors to be globally competitive.

Better understanding of evidence on national defence spending strategies, strengthening domestic foundations, and developing supportive and achievable regulatory frameworks will improve the business environment and labour markets and foster long-term stability.

As part of this, economic security and growth rely on affordable energy and energy security. DBT recognises the need to act quickly to support sectors with high-growth potential and/or significant exposure to high electricity costs. We want to better identify and enable technologies that can be more efficient than fossil fuel equivalents, to help drive productivity and remove barriers in our energy-intensive industries.

Our evidence base will allow us to recognise what opportunities exist and to balance the risks, benefits and challenges, and help us to further quantify the impact that access to affordable energy has on economic growth.

DBT welcomes the opportunity to extend its networks as widely as possible and is keen to ensure it reaches a diverse range of stakeholders. The department is happy to receive general expressions of interest and more detailed submissions from experts, at all career stages, who are interested in sharing their research with us.

Introduction

DBT’s strategic objectives

DBT’s areas of research interest set out a range of long-term questions that the department welcomes the contribution of evidence on, for the purpose of informing future policy and decision-making. They also offer a framework for establishing and maintaining long-term engagement and collaboration with the academic and research community.

DBT is the department for economic growth. We support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. We are guided by our top priority of driving visible economic growth for all through bold interventions. Our strategic objectives are to:

• accelerate global UK leadership in future growth sectors
• deepen and expand strategic trade relationships
• build economic resilience and stabilise sectors in distress

We are also collaborating to deliver the government missions through the Plan for Change, that will work together to improve the lives of working people and strengthen our country.

To deliver our objectives, DBT uses multidisciplinary and diverse teams, focusing on a range of topics including:

• Advanced Manufacturing
• Energy and Clean Growth
• Technology Adoption
• Infrastructure
• Employee and Company Rights and Governance
• Product Standards and Safety
• Investment
• Exports
• Access to Finance
• Professional Business Services
• Trade and Economic Security

Purpose of the areas of research interest

Evidence and research are essential mechanisms to deliver policy that is inclusive, effective and resilient.

The ARI encourage academics and researchers from any discipline to explore and contribute to answering a range of priority and long-term questions. Advancing our knowledge on these topics will help build the department’s evidence base and stimulate future collaboration. The purpose of these ARI is to provide guidance about the topics where further research is most likely to have a positive impact on DBT policy.

We have developed the ARI through extensive discussions with policy, analysis and science and engineering colleagues within the department. This document is not an exhaustive or definitive list of DBT’s interests in research, science and analysis. Rather it comprises the sub-set of questions where:

• interest is deemed to be sufficiently enduring
• external research communities are well placed to enhance DBT’s evidence base
• we see opportunities for shaping future research and collaborations with external experts

In most cases, submitted external expertise will complement evidence produced by civil servants or commissioned formally by the department and published on GOV.UK. Some questions might be looking to reassure that we have the most up-to-date evidence on topics that have been well researched in the past. We appreciate that some questions may have been recently posed in other publications from DBT but believe that the question is significant enough to be included in here as well.

Beyond the specific questions in the published ARI list, and as part of wider academic engagement, we welcome submissions on topics that can contribute to informing DBT’s broader strategic objectives.

The ARI sit alongside our other important analytical and scientific publications and processes for DBT and are a part of our broader regular engagement between the department and the research community. The Government Office for Science provides further guidance on interpreting and using the ARIs.

DBT has extensive evidence requirements that evolve over time. We intend to update this ARI document at regular intervals to ensure that it continues to reflect current departmental priorities and the evolving evidence base.

Engaging with the areas of research interest

We welcome your engagement with the ARI as a researcher if you:

• have evidence that completely or partly answers one or more of our questions, or any relevant research that applies to our departmental priorities as highlighted throughout
• are currently conducting or planning research related to one of our questions
• are aware of relevant research being conducted elsewhere
• are submitting a funding or grant application that aligns with one of our questions – we hope referencing DBT’s ARI will help to strengthen your case for the possible public impact of the research
• would like to express your interest in engaging with DBT on shared research interests

You can engage with DBT’s areas of research interest by completing this form.

When you engage with DBT’s ARI, we will ensure the evidence you submit reaches the right parts of the department for their consideration. Colleagues may also wish to follow up with you if they have further questions.

The ARI are not linked to any research funding, nor are they an offer to collaborate with researchers on projects. We cannot respond to speculative approaches for research funding. Externally commissioned research projects are competitively tendered on Contracts Finder and the Research Marketplace.

Depending on the nature of your ongoing or planned research, relevant teams might be able to support it by providing insights and letters of support for grant applications. To discuss these types of support, get in touch via this form.

You can also access:

• a list of government departments’ ARI publications
• the ARI database which includes indexed and searchable areas of research interest from all government departments
• research agendas of other relevant authorities on their websites

How to get in touch

You can use this form to respond to specific ARI questions, or to express your interest in engaging with DBT on shared areas of research interest. For general inquiries, you may contact us on ARI@businessandtrade.gov.uk. We will ensure that your contact details and information about your research that is relevant to our ARI is passed on to the most appropriate team in DBT.

DBT welcomes the opportunity to extend its networks as widely as possible and is keen to ensure it reaches a diverse range of stakeholders. The department is happy to receive general expressions of interest and more detailed submissions from experts, at all career stages, who are interested in sharing their research with us.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards ARI

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is the UK’s national product regulator. Their primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm. By doing this, OPSS helps consumers and businesses to buy and sell products with confidence, supporting trade, innovation and growth.

OPSS is part of DBT and supports DBT ministers in the development and implementation of product safety, metrology and hallmarking policy. OPSS supports Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) ministers on associated responsibilities relating to construction products.

OPSS enforces product regulations for 6 different government departments, sometimes acting as the sole enforcement authority, and in other areas working with local authorities to co-ordinate national and local enforcement activities. OPSS uses science, evidence, and intelligence to shape its interventions.   

Due to OPSS’s broad remit, they will publish a complementary areas of research interest document to engage academics and researchers with a broad range of skills sets and experience to develop its understanding of the following topics:  

• sector understanding – how can political, economic, social technical, legislative and environmental changes impact the products, businesses and sectors relevant to OPSS’s regulatory and policy remits?
• product understanding – which emerging hazards and harms from products may be present on current UK markets, what factors increase the risk of these hazards and harms?
• business compliance – what interventions and mechanisms are effective in influencing businesses to take action to ensure the placement of safe and compliant products on UK markets?
• product supply chains – what features of supply chains are connected to the availability of unsafe and compliant consumer and construction products on UK markets?
• consumer behaviour – how do consumer and construction products pose risk to vulnerable consumers and what methods can be employed to reduce the effects and exposure to unsafe and the effects of non-compliant products?

Our areas of research interest

To structure our evidence interests, we present a broad range of research themes of interest to DBT across its different policy areas. These themes will all in part contribute to the top departmental priorities of visible economic growth, accelerating growth of future sectors, deepening and expanding trade relationships, and increasing economic resilience.

1. Industrial Strategy, Business Regulation and Growth
2. International Trade and Investment
3. Labour Market and Employment Rights
4. Economic Security and Supply Chain Resilience
5. Methodology (tools, methods and disciplinary approaches)

Within each topic, we have briefly outlined some of the research interests in relation to the policy priorities and provided specific evidence questions that are of interest to the department.

1. Industrial Strategy, Business Regulation and Growth

DBT is committed to driving a mission-led Industrial Strategy that empowers businesses, including SMEs, to invest, grow and thrive. To do this, we must continually ensure we know which factors support or hinder growth. A sector-specific approach will enable us to apply evidence-based lessons effectively, fostering innovation and scaling-up across priority sectors.

The topics covered in this theme relate to enabling government to seize the most significant opportunities and create the most favourable conditions in the UK to support companies to emerge, grow, and thrive here. We have included questions that pertain to the Industrial Strategy sectors (the IS-8), clear and achievable regulation for safety and success, and productivity and efficiency.

The Industrial Strategy Advisory Council (ISAC) is also planning to publish a list of ARIs in 2026, which will contribute to its work reviewing the Industrial Strategy and making recommendations for improvements based on high quality research and evidence. DBT will continue engaging with ISAC going forward, sharing relevant evidence and insights.

It is important to continually ensure we have the best understanding of local and overseas markets and how they contribute to UK economic growth. This includes, but is not limited to, measuring impact of trade agreements, mapping trajectories and predicting evolution of trends and outcomes. For businesses to make the best decisions about investment, across various sectors and demographics, we must understand:

• the steps in decision-making processes
• drivers shaping the market and market dynamism
• enablers and barriers for technology adoption that can impact productivity and growth procurement and its impact
• how regulatory policy can enable the channels that lead to success

Increases in technology adoption and diffusion is central to our work, and we seek evidence on how artificial intelligence (AI), automation and digitisation can accelerate productivity and competitiveness.

The ability to make the UK a great place to do business includes:

• tackling high industrial electricity costs
• promoting fair and free trade
• expanding access to finance
• capitalising on the value of UK data

2. International Trade and Investment

Businesses must be equipped to seize opportunities and navigate challenges in global trade and investment, supporting DBT’s ambition to reset trade relations and champion UK exports. In this changing landscape, we want to know how UK businesses are responding to changes and improvements in market access, breaking down results by sector, business demographic, and type of barrier to overcome. The impacts of geopolitical risks and conflicts may impact, positively or negatively, businesses’ ability to trade. Therefore, being able to map and track configuration of trade routes and formulation of investment strategies will be crucial to continual success.

The topics in this theme relate to enabling businesses to trade effectively and to attract the most competitive foreign investment, creating long-term partnerships that will help UK businesses to thrive. We have included questions on understanding and improving trade with the EU, mechanisms for optimal export and import, how to build effective and resilient free trade agreements, and how to maximise the outputs through the Office for Investment.

Delivering resilient growth through foreign trade and investment requires:

• an understanding of current and future opportunities, challenges, enablers and barriers
• identifying the highest potential markets, sectors and partnerships for success
• building and negotiating free trade agreements that boost growth and protect jobs
• providing support to businesses in the form of access to finance, unifying export support services, and harnessing digitisation
• maximising and promoting the strengths of the Office for Investment, particularly in the area of foreign direct investment

3. Labour Market and Employment Rights

To make work pay and create a resilient labour market that underpins economic growth, we are looking to continuing building the best evidence base to support businesses and people. This applies to employers of and workers with different cost requirements, characteristics, skills, and immigration status. We recognise these factors will have direct impacts on living standards, poverty, wage expectations, and ability to spend or save.

This theme focuses on building a skilled, empowered workforce, essential for inclusive growth and innovation. This in turn will raise living standards, create opportunities for all, through tackling poor working conditions, low pay, and poor job security. We have included questions that relate to driving trends for labour allocation, skills development and retention, technology deployment, and best practise for businesses.

The ability to nurture a strong labour market and support employment rights includes:

• modernising the UK labour market and strengthening employment protections
• entitlement to parental leave, establishing bereavement leave, facilitating flexible working and protection from unfair dismissal
• increasing protection from sexual harassment, identifying gender and menopause action plans, and strengthening rights for pregnant workers
• ensuring security and flexibility for workers and for working families
• empowering workers, trade unions and employers to negotiate fair pay, terms and conditions, and training standards
• increasing employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, supporting them to thrive as part of a workforce
• strengthening workers’ rights and empowering employees to speak out against unfair processes and helping to remove unnecessary restrictions

4. Economic security and supply chain resilience

Global pressures, including currency movements and economic security policies, have direct and indirect effects on supply chains, global trade flows, and economic and national security in the UK. We seek evidence to strengthen economic security and supply chain resilience, ensuring UK businesses can scale-up and compete globally. The topics in this theme enable government to strengthen our economic and national security, as well as ensuring supply chains are understood and reinforced to be resilient to both long-term change and economic shocks.

Due to a new era of geopolitical competition, the UK faces the possibility of rising geopolitical instability and the increase of volatile supply chains, therefore understanding how to take assertive, protective, and strategic steps will help to support economic growth and resilience. We have included questions that relate to trends for supply chains, global economic challenges to business growth, critical mineral dependencies, and global trade flows.

Delivering economic security and resilient supply chains requires:

• enabling climate change adaption and accelerating the need for secure, homegrown energy
• creating opportunities for firms to capture market share in strategic technologies
• supporting UK sectors to be globally competitive and securing a spot on the global stage
• building a reputation as a stable, reliable partner, while also building UK-based capabilities and supply
• giving businesses the tools, knowledge, and support to traverse uncertain and volatile environments

5. Methodology

We aim to lead in developing cutting-edge methodologies that inform evidence-based policy and drive innovation. We recognise that some topics are measured through numerous methods and may have contextual requirements.

DBT seeks robust, innovative methods to assess topics including:

• the impact of emerging technologies including Blockchain and AI
• the long-term effects of its business growth services
• the short, medium and macro-economic impacts of policy interventions and Industrial Strategy programmes
• measurement of product level emissions for reflection of the economy to inform trade and enable global alignment
• evaluation of economic and environmental impacts relating to free trade agreements, mutual recognition agreements, and trade policy developments from the lens of both bilateral and multilateral agreements
• tracking the performance of UK sectors, particularly sectors such as the Advanced Manufacturing sector, so that DBT can better support growth and success

Submissions

We welcome submissions and expressions of interest in engaging with DBT via this form. General inquiries can be sent to ARI@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

List of detailed questions

View the list of detailed questions.