UK biologists brace for cuts

British life scientists are braced this week for a critical spending announcement that will mark the end of a sustained period of growth for British science, and may result in several years of steep falls in government research spending.

George Osbourne
Image: Wikimedia commons, Mholland

This Wednesday (20 October), George Osbourne, the chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister), will release a Comprehensive Spending Review that is expected to cut overall government spending in most departments, except health and overseas aid, by an average of about 25 percent over the next four years.The cuts are expected to be at least that severe at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which pays for teaching and research at Britain's universities, and scientists are expecting a harsh outcome."The feeling is one of naked terror at a perfect storm of bad news," said Steve Jones, a geneticist at University College London, noting that biologists have already been hit by a move away from grant funding at both the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. "The coming attack on the research budget means that a whole generation of PhD students and postdocs will be lost," he told The Scientist. "We are destroying twenty years of progress to make a cheap political point."The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, elected in May after 13 years of Labour rule, has pledged to cut the budget rapidly in order to balance the national budget by 2015/16. Some economists and political commentators have questioned, however, whether it will be politically feasible to implement cuts so quickly.An article last month in the Financial Times reported that BIS was being asked to cut £962 million from its annual £6 billion research budget, and to slash its support for teaching at universities by three-quarters, from £4.7 billion to £1.2 billion.This pattern was also reflected in a linkurl:leaked letter;http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/15/browne-review-universities-cuts sent last week by Steve Smith, president of the university vice-chancellor's group Universities UK, which warned of cuts of 15 percent to research and of 80 percent to university teaching. Government officials have declined to comment on these reports in advance of Wednesday's announcement.The £6 billion science budget for the current financial year, which ends next April, is spent mainly through seven research councils, including the Medical Research Council (£707 million), the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (£470 million), and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).Mark Downs, chief executive of the Society of Biology, which represents about 80,000 biologists in academia and industry, said he feared that the cuts to the research budget might be worse than the reported 15 percent, given reports over the weekend that the government will shelter parts of the high-spending Ministry of Defence from its share of the cuts. Despite suggestions that the review will cut research less deeply than other areas of spending, the mood of academic researchers is being darkened by the funding outlook for university teaching. The government appears to be planning to remove most of its support for teaching, on the basis that universities will introduce large tuition fees recommended in a linkurl:review;hereview.independent.gov.uk/ released this month by Lord Browne, former chairman of BP. But there are doubts that a new fee structure can be rapidly implemented, raising the prospect of turmoil in university funding.Indeed, Wednesday's announcement is expected to spark a fiery debate, over the winter months, about which research councils and what types of research activity to cut. There's some speculation that the government will be forced to revise its spending plans next year if the British economy falls back into recession -- but this prospect is doing little to raise morale at the bench.John Hardy, a neuroscientist also at UCL, said that as well as "trepidation" among researchers, there was anger that government ministers -- including Willetts' boss, innovation secretary Vince Cable, in a speech last month -- have been calling for British science to be more "relevant", when UK-based scientists have just won Nobel Prizes for thin carbon materials and for linkurl:in-vitro fertilization.;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57734/ "You can't get more practical than that," he said.Correction (19 October): The "Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)" had its remit adjusted and name changed a few months ago, and is now the "Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)". The Scientist regrets the error.
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[February 2010] *linkurl:Cheers for UK science budget;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/52951/
[22nd March 2007] *linkurl:IVF pioneer wins Nobel;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57734/
[4th October 2010]