Peer review process to be examined in Royal Society consultation

UK government backing for open-access publishing while proponents move to promote it more widely

New ESF head will push for greater financial influence and more basic research funding

Consultation begins on proposals to shake up UK's approach to research assessment

Higher Education Funding Council for England at odds with Government over strategy.

Universities UK says government proposal to cut research funding will undermine medical research.

A job in the higher reaches of academia is good training for parliamentary life, if Ian Gibson, Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich North, is to be believed. Now chair of the House of Commons select committee on science and technology, Gibson was Dean of biological sciences at the University of East Anglia until his election to parliament in 1997. Ambition, he says, and back-stabbing are common to both.Yet it is hard to escape the conviction that Gibson revels in political life. It is a

17 billion research programme receives mixed reception from UK academics.

Leading UK research council announces research goals in five-year strategy.

Top-up fees, split between teaching and research, and new research grading among government's plans.

UK's newest supercomputer looks set to usher in a new phase of theoretical biology.

ESA says Dutch scientist will carry out biomedical experiments on Space Station next year.