Patrick Mulder

On the physics funding crisis in the UK - there are some issues of nuance, shall we say, in the attached article below. The reason STFC had 'no choice' but to cut so many projects (Jodrell and many more) was NOT the government's spending review settlement. It was a deliberate choice by UKRI (as confirmed by a UKRI board member on X, you'll find it in my replies) to refocus spend away from STFC science and labs and towards other areas which, it asserts, will lead to more ‘impact’. UKRI have the power to do this. However, as the HoC Select committee pointed out, we have not been able to see a detailed record of the process, impact assessment or consultation that led to such a seismic shift in UK science policy. Who made the decision? As @ChiOnwurah wrote in an open letter to UKRI / STFC in March: ‘What is clear is that, despite your assertions to the contrary in evidence to my committee and our counterparts in the House of Lords, widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken. This is wholly unacceptable and represents a failure for which DSIT, UKRI and STFC leadership must bear responsibility, and act urgently to address.’

Jodrell Bank is the most visible causality of UKRI’s short sighted ‘vision’ for science, but as you’ll see below, there are many other valuable UK facilities and collaborations at risk. We became aware of the problem in the autumn of last year. It is not a result of the overall funding settlement for science after the spending review, which was quite generous I would say in the circumstances. Neither as far as we can tell is it a direct decision by ministers (all of whom have now gone in any case). Rather the problems appears to have been caused by senior management at UKRI focusing on short term economic ‘impact’ (whatever that means) rather than doing their job as custodians of the foundations of science. What must happen now is that the new ministerial team make the time (and space ;-)) to review the upcoming catastrophe, and instruct UKRI to do their job and focus on making Britain the best place in the world to do science, now and in the future.

This is the result of many bad legacy decisions taken by UKRI hastily and without proper consultation, overseen by a government department that no longer exists. Surely the new @andyburnham government will want to take time to review this.