Established on 1 April 2018 by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, UKRI brought nine organisations into one unified body.

[2][3] UKRI was created following a report by Sir Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society, who recommended the merger in order to increase integrative cross-disciplinary research.

[3] The first Chief Executive Officer of UKRI was the immunologist Professor Sir Mark Walport.

[5] He was succeeded in June 2020 by plant biologist Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser.

[7] Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) was an Arms Length Body of the Department of Trade and Industry, while Research England succeeded the former Higher Education Funding Council for England.