UK government puts weight behind science

YORKSHIRE — The UK science strategy published yesterday (23 July) links the increases in science spending announced last week firmly to the government's leading economic policy of boosting productivity levels in the UK to match those of the US, France and Germany. Arguing there is growing evidence that technological innovation (fed by science) increases productivity, the strategy provides the guidance that research councils and government departments must follow in the coming months as they apportion the money for science announced last week.Backed by The Treasury, The Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Education and Skills, and presented by an impressive line up of senior ministers, the report signals that science is increasingly seen as a high-profile political issue by this government. "Coming so soon after Tony Blair's strongly pro-science speech to The Royal Society in May, there is a sense in which it is simply the existence of the report, not what it says, that matters," said Peter Cotgreave, the director of Save British Science, a pro-science lobby group that has been a thorn in the side of successive British governments. "That said," he added, "the document is short on detail and we need to see those."The document is in many ways an overview of all the policy issues in UK science that have been discussed in recent years. The overarching aims that emerge from different sections of the report are: the need to co-ordinate the research strategies of government, charities and industry; enhancement of science education at all levels; the need to redress the balance between what is spent on research facilities and what is spent on research; promotion of knowledge transfer from basic research to the economy; and improvement of the use of scientific advice by government and management of research by departments. There are policy announcements for each. Government, says the strategy, will establish a "science funders forum", where government, charities and industry can exchange information about research strategies and consider the financial impact on research facilities overall, as well as developing an understanding of how the different streams of research revenue work together. Phil Green, a policy advisor at the Wellcome Trust, cautiously welcomes the idea, saying the Trust's final view will depend on the detail. Cotgreave is more blunt. "It needs to be much more than everyone sitting round a table feeling all warm and lovely. We need to know what is intended and what the forum will deliver."Within the arena of science education the headline winner last week was the boost to the stipend for PhDs, but a new National Centre for Improving the Teaching of Science will also be established. The Wellcome Trust has agreed to contribute £25 million toward the cost of building, setting up and running the centre. "Such a centre is a good idea", says Cotgreave, "but it won't matter at all if the central problem of recruiting more maths and science teachers cannot be solved." Currently — and despite financial incentives for maths and physics graduates — there is a shortage of people teaching these subjects. "Even with the current meltdown, good physics and maths graduates can probably walk into better paid jobs in the City than in teaching," says Cotgreave.New plans to write off student loans at 10% per year for graduates who teach subjects where there are recruitment difficulties are currently going through the legislative process, Estelle Morris, the secretary of State for Education and Skills said yesterday. And this may help overcome the shortage of physics and maths teachers. At University level, the strategy places the Research Assessment Exercise in the spotlight. Policy experts have argued for some time that under-investment in research facilities in the UK was not only due to lack of money, but because the Research Assessment Exercise is geared to give financial rewards to departments with the best research portfolio. Not surprisingly, this encourages investment in research rather than infrastructure, such as new equipment. The RAE has also come under fire for undervaluing both applied and interdisciplinary research. Yet, the Research Assessment Exercise has demonstrably improved the quality of research in British Universities. To resolve these apparent contradictions, Sir Gareth Roberts (a report by Roberts in April led to last week's announcement of an increase in the stipend for PhDs) is to begin a review of the RAE and alternative assessment methods this autumn. Although the strategy is strongly supportive of basic science, it also argues that science must be translated into innovative products and technology if it is to justify public funding and meet the economic goal of improved productivity. As a result, extra funding (£90 million per year by 2005–06) is to be distributed to universities via the Higher Education Innovation Fund. This money is to pay for entrepreneurship training, venture capital and spin-off companies.Finally, there is the question of how government departments use science advice, something which the crises over BSE, foot-and-mouth, MMR and GM foods has made a high priority. The Chief Scientific Adviser, with external advisors, is to conduct a department by department review of advisory structures in order to find an answer. About this plan, Cotgreave would only say, "I reserve judgement."Though the increase in science spending is undoubtedly good when viewed in isolation (the current spending review follows a 15% increase in real terms on the amount spent on science from 1998–99 to 2001–02), it is less good when looked at internationally. Since 1981 the UK total spend on science (government, charities and industry) has declined from nearly 2.4% of GDP, placing it second for science spending in the G7 group of nations, to around 1.8% of GDP in 2000, putting the UK near the bottom of the G7.Most of that decrease, however, is accounted for by a decrease in industrial and defence research spending. By comparison, other G7 countries have experienced significant increases in industrial R&D, and the money saved on defence research has been switched to civilian work.In this strategy the three departments point out that industry, as well as government, needs to increase its investment in research if the UK is to increase the percentage of GDP spent on research to 1981 levels. Fiscal measures, such as tax breaks for R&D announced in the budget are intended to kick-start that process.

UK government puts weight behind science

Tony Blair's government has underlined its commitment to UK science in the strategy document just released.

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