Science funding hit by 41 per cent cuts

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The next four years will see £324 million in “efficiencies” made within capital expenditure in science and research.

The coalition Government announced the plans to cut this area of spending by 41 per cent yesterday, despite promises to freeze funding to science, in real cash terms, at £4.6 million during the spending review in October.

In a joint statement from David Willets, minister for universities and science, and Vince Cable, secretary of state for the department of business, innovation and skills (BIS), the ministers claimed the £4.6 million would remain in place and the extra savings would be pumped back into science and research.

“We have taken the decision to delay some capital investment to maximise investment in research projects and people actually doing research,” said Willets.

The money will be invested into organisations such as the UK Space Agency. However, it will remove the cash spent on equipment and maintenance of facilities, which may mean fewer jobs and a reduction in new projects.

Lilian Edwards, Professor of E-Governance at the University of Strathclyde, told IT PRO: "As we all know there are lies, damned lies and statistics, and it is very probably a real cut in funding in sciences will be laundered as maintaining a freeze.”

She claimed the issue was even bigger than the cuts though, as they were coming during a time where “UK higher education - not just in the sciences - is being systematically and deliberately demolished.”

She added: “Morale [of UK researchers] is at an all time low, and the best – not trammelled by family connections – have already left for better funded labs and offices abroad. In 10 years time, outside the charmed circle of Oxbridge, London and sensible Scotland, it may well be UK academe that is regarded as at the standard of a developing nation."

Imran Khan, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), told IT PRO that whilst it was “encouraging” the money would go back into research, it would be a tough task as “UK research is already amongst most efficient in the world.”

But Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment – based at the London School of Economics (LSE) – was more critical of the move.

In a blog post, he wrote: “It looks like we could be returning to the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s when researchers were forced to work in laboratories and facilities that were starved of investment.”

“World class researchers need world class facilities and infrastructure if they are to provide the advances in knowledge and innovation that drive our economy.”

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