Tuesday, June 02, 2009

why is scientific research in the UK being sabotaged?

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Okay, first I implore everyone to sign this Downing Street e-petition.

Secondly, a close friend of mine has just been awarded a NERC fellowship. The panel awarding the grants allegedly had an upper limit of thirty for the forty five superlative candidates who had made it to the interview stage. They awarded eight.

Thirdly, a grant with my name on has just been rejected by another NERC panel. Out of a total of thirty to fifty grant applications that they would have considered they awarded funding to two.

TWO!

The research councils have clearly been instructed to tighten their belts significantly. This is insane. The government claims that you can't cut your way out of recession, in direct contradiction to David Cameron's voodoo-economic philosophy. However, their actions at this fundamental level of funding contradicts their own claims. This is ridiculous and will sap research departments across the country right when the most important thing to be doing is preserving- or even building our research base. Research money circulates within the country, provides far more employment in tertiary roles than at the purely scientific level and fuels innovation and development. I say again, cutting research grants in a recession is economic stupidity.

1 comment:

  1. Damn right. I've said my piece on the folly of pursuing only 'research with an economic impact' at the cost of fundamental research.

    ReplyDelete

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