UK cuts research councils' funding
The UK research councils have reacted with disappointment to the announcement of a GBP 68 million (EUR;101.4 million) cut to their budgets. The cuts are necessary due to 'historic and new pressures', according to the Government's Department for Trade and Industry (DTI). The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will lose the most (GBP 29 million), followed by the Medical Research Council (GBP 10.7 million) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSC - GBP 6.7 million). The BBRSC will now need to cut the equivalent of 20 new grants, it announced, and will reduce its annual competitive funding scheme for new equipment at its sponsored institutes. 'It is inevitable with changes of this size that frontline research will be affected,' said the BBRSC's Chief Executive, Julia Goodfellow. 'How deep the damage will be to the UK's international competitiveness in bioscience depends on how long it takes us to return to our planned trajectory for growth,' she said. Peter Cotgreave, Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK (CASE), was also concerned by the announcement: 'The amounts of money involved may be relatively small parts of the overall science budget, but the Government is not going to create the conditions for the dynamic, knowledge-driven economy it is striving for by reducing the nation's capacity to perform science and engineering research.' The GBP 68 million amounts to less than 1% of the nearly GBP 10 billion (€14.92 billion) set aside for science over the current three-year spending period. The Government points out that the science budget has more than doubled since 1997 and that, 'even in the light of this decision, it continues to rise year on year'. The UK is however some way off meeting the EU goal of increasing research investment to 3% of GDP by 2010. The UK currently invests 1.9% of its national wealth in research, and expects to increase this figure to 2.5% by 2014.
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