Prospect to present case against physics cuts

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Prospect to present case against physics cuts

UK physicists and astronomers fear that restructuring plans put forward by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council are too harsh and will spell the end of many national research programmes with the subsequent loss of key scientific skills and research facilities.



That is the message the scientists’ union Prospect will present to the Innovation and Skills Select Committee’s hearing into the science budget allocation, being held today.

The STFC board have argued that reorganisation of funding priorities is vital after its allocation of the science budget fell £80m short of anticipated levels.

But Prospect has argued that decisions over cuts have been made in an opaque and knee-jerk manner, and that the shortfall has been compounded by the Council’s insistence on a further £40m in ‘headroom’ savings for flexibility.

Speaking before the meeting, Prospect National Secretary Tony Bell said: "We understand, given the levels of funding allocated to the STFC, that hard choices needed to be made.

"However, rather than have a dialogue with key stakeholders such as staff over those choices, decisions have been made so secretly that staff neither understand STFC‘s vision for the future nor support the choices it is making."

For example, he said, staff viewed the intention to "explore alternative options for running the UK Astronomy Technology Centre" in Edinburgh as shorthand for a quick sale, despite the recent description of the site by the STFC chief executive as the "jewel in the crown."

"Similarly our members see a contradiction between the DIUS statement that the Daresbury campus "will be at the heart of STFC’s economic impact strategy" and the withdrawal of funding for programmes such as energy recovery Linac Prototype and the EMMA project which are key to the future of the site.

"While the future for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) looks less uncertain, the headline figures for jobs lost and areas of science abandoned at RAL does not take into account the knock-on job losses in the wider science community whose employment is dependent on the research and facilities at the STFC sites."

The union will be calling on the MPs to urge the STFC to rethink its planned cuts and explore alternative forms of research funding for UK physics and astronomy.