The Royal Society of Chemistry calls for stronger local skills and innovation ecosystems to unlock more regional prosperity.
Chemistry contributed a record £60.5bn to the UK economy in 2023.
A new RSC report reveals its central role in driving growth, jobs and innovation throughout the UK.
However, it also warns that pressures on higher education and skills pipelines pose a risk to accessing the talent needed to deliver this growth.
Contribution of Chemistry also highlights how chemistry is embedded in local economies, supporting priority growth sectors and high-value employment across the UK.
Nearly half (46%) of chemistry-using professionals work in UK Government priority sectors, significantly higher than the wider workforce (26%), reinforcing chemistry’s importance to regional growth strategies.
With each chemistry-using job generating an average of £98,300 in Gross Value Added, chemistry is vital for local economic resilience and productivity.
Helen Pain, RSC chief executive, said: “If the UK is serious about inclusive growth and access to opportunity, ensuring access to chemistry education and careers in every part of the country must be a priority.
“The report shows that 83% of chemistry graduates enter high-skilled roles, well above the average across all subjects. These graduates are critical to local labour markets, helping businesses to grow, innovate and compete.
“It is critical that we maintain this pipeline depends on strong local education and training pathways, from schools and colleges through to universities and technical provision, linked closely with employers and regional economic priorities.”
The RSC is calling on:
- Local, devolved and UK governments to recognise and embed chemistry as a core enabling capability in local and national economic, science and technology, industrial, innovation and skills strategies and narratives.
- UK Government, funders and regulators to ensure that higher education and research funding reform recognises the strategic and economic value of chemistry. This includes the need for infrastructure, people, equipment and consumables to deliver high-quality chemistry teaching and research, for example through Strategic Priorities Grant reform and research funding reform.
- Local, devolved and UK governments to improve visibility and coordination across interconnected sectors that rely on chemistry, recognising that disruption to chemistry inputs, skills or research can have cascading impacts across value chains, productivity and economic resilience.
- Devolved and UK governments, funders and universities to strengthen pathways from chemistry research to innovation, translation, scale-up and commercialisation, including specialist infrastructure such as laboratories and pilot plant facilities, to improve local and national value capture from UK-developed innovations.
- Chemistry-using businesses and industry leaders to clearly communicate their skills, infrastructure and market needs, helping align chemistry capability with industrial challenges, market opportunities and growth priorities.
While chemical sciences GVA grew by 18% between 2019 and 2023, the report highlights barriers that particularly affect regional growth, including limited access to suitable lab space and scale-up support for businesses.
Fiona Tuck, Director at Metro Dynamics, which led on the research for the project commissioned, said: “Now more than ever, leaders need to understand what really underpins growth in places. Too often, the capabilities that matter most are not the easiest to count.
“Chemistry shows why this matters: it is woven through our research base, industrial supply chains and priority sectors, but its contribution can be hidden when we look only through traditional sector lenses, or at technology alone.
Professor Alexander Reip is Chair of Oxfordshire Enterprise, a trustee of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the steering group working with Metro Dynamics.
He said: “Chemistry’s contribution to the UK economy is substantial, and this report finally puts hard numbers to what many in the sector have long understood. Chemistry-intensive activity runs through the industrial base of communities across the UK, underpinning jobs, supply chains and innovation capacity in ways that rarely get the visibility they deserve.
“The recent speech by Andy Burnham is a reminder that inclusive growth ambitions live or die on the strength of local skills and innovation ecosystems.
“Chemistry sits at the heart of the UK’s industrial strategy priority sectors – but its reach extends well beyond those eight. Chemistry threads through life sciences, defence, food and drink, construction, agriculture and consumer goods, often invisibly, meaning that disruption to chemistry capability has cascading consequences across the wider economy.
“If local and devolved governments are serious about harnessing those opportunities, they need to treat chemistry capability as infrastructure, not an afterthought. That means investing in the education pathways, lab facilities and translation support that allow innovation to move from research into commercial activity in the places where it is needed most.
“Critically, that also means backing chemistry-based businesses at the scale-up stage, where the gap between promising innovation and commercial success is too often where growth stalls.”
