UK's 10-year plan revealed

LONDON—Britain published details of a new 10-year framework to boost science and innovation on Monday (July 12), a plan broadly described as good news by leading figures in the research world. The framework was announced by finance minister Gordon Brown alongside the government's triennial spending review, which determines how and where it allocates money. At the broadest level, the new plan envisages public and private spending on research and development in the United Kingdom rising from 1.9 to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014. In the shorter term, it offers annual growth in public science funding of 5.8% over the spending review period, meaning that by 2008, science spending will be £1 billion higher than in 2004–2005. "Today's framework represents a long-term commitment to investing in science and innovation to create a platform for future wealth creation, productivity growth and better public services," Brown said in a statement. "Only by working with our business and research charity partners will we achieve our goal of R&D in the UK reaching 2.5% of GDP." In step with the government's boost, The Wellcome Trust said it expects to commit at least £1.5 billion in the United Kingdom over the coming 5 years. Director Mark Walport called the government's announcement "good news all round for science and public health." "The spending review will give added strength to partnership arrangements that exist between government and charities," he said. "As an independent funder of world class research in UK universities we will be extending our investments in clinical research and developing public awareness as well as boosting international research and aid." Brown's spending review included a budget boost for the Office of Science and Technology (OST), which will have £3.282 billion to distribute in 2007–2008, compared with £2.575 billion in 2004–2005. This will include the creation of central funding provision of £70 million to enable research councils to respond more quickly to emerging priorities, the government said. Robert Winston, professor of fertility studies at Imperial College, said he was pleased to see the work of the research councils get the recognition they deserved. "It is a pity that health service research related to patients has not been earmarked, but hopefully we can persuade the treasury of the importance of this in due course," he added. Under the framework, the Director General of the Research Councils will also agree on goals for boosting knowledge transfer with individual research councils. For the past few months, the government has been involved in a consultation exercise with the science community about the 10-year framework. On Monday, Ian Diamond, speaking on behalf of Research Councils UK, said "Broadly speaking, government has listened to the research councils and acted on key messages about the importance of basic research. This reverses previous short-term approaches to funding." Diamond said that the infrastructure for science in Britain has been growing worse in terms of long-term support for facilities and for encouraging the next generations of researchers. "The new framework announced today balances the need for money for new frontline research projects with the need to ensure that our research base is sustainable—with transparent costings, infrastructure investment, and more support to develop talented young scientists—and delivers for the economy through knowledge transfer." In the spending review, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) got nearly £250 million extra by 2007–2008 (compared with 2005–2006) for university research and knowledge transfer in England. Reforms of the Research Assessment Exercise will lead to new ways of assessing university research, the government said. Peter Cotgreave, director of the organization Save British Science, said there was much in the review that appeared to be "genuinely good news for the science community." "We're particularly pleased that new money includes extra resources to fund projects fully, and that the DfES budget is rising faster than the OST budget, to reverse the gap that has been building up in recent years," Cotgreave said. But the United Kingdom's long-term goal for R&D investment isn't ambitious enough, Cotgreave told The Scientist. "They should not be talking about a long-term aim of 2.5%, they should be talking about 3%, which is where the best in the world are." Cotgreave also noted that the 10-year plan is short on details about funding levels beyond the 3 years covered by the spending review, leaving questions unanswered about long-term stability for the United Kingdom's research councils. "I think, for the next 3 years, they know what their money is… but then beyond the third year, there's nothing about how much money they're going to get," Cotgreave said. "There's lots of stuff about roughly where we want to aim… but there's nothing that says this is going to provide a nice stable research funding platform for the research councils for the next 10 years."

UK's 10-year plan revealed

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