Sir, I was heartened to read the comments made by the Shadow Business Secretary, John Denham, (“Cuts ‘risk UK losing position as world leader in science’,” Mar 8). The spending review, and subsequent freeze in science funding, carried out by the Department for Business, Skills and Innovation was met as neither victory nor defeat by the scientific community. There is a growing unease regarding the decision, equivalent to a decrease in spending in real terms, and the future consequences to Britain as a world leader in science and innovation. I welcome Mr Denham’s offer of bipartisan support to secure a long-term investment plan for science and engineering in this country.
The current group of postgraduate students in my field, physics, are genuinely worried about the funding landscape they will emerge into on completion of their respective programmes, with many resigned to looking abroad for employment in the sciences. If a cross-party agreement can be made, this Government can more easily implement a viable, long-term plan for sustained growth in science spending. As Mr Denham rightly indicates, Britain’s current science spending plan is contrary to plans placed by similarly developed countries and is at odds with the innovation-centred ethos the Government wishes to propagate.
Simply maintaining present levels of investment is insufficient. If growth is the real target of the coalition, they would do well to consider if the current spending strategy will not in fact be detrimental in the long term.
David Lloyd
Department of Physics,
University of Oxford