Image: Grace Gay for Research Professional News
Chi Onwurah says science minister and UKRI leadership must “bear responsibility” and “win back trust”
The chair of the House of Commons science committee has branded impending cuts to physics funding as “wholly unacceptable” and “a failure” in an excoriating letter to the science minister and the leader of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Last week, the executive chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Michele Dougherty was grilled by MPs on the Commons committee about the cuts. The day before, science minister Patrick Vallance was also questioned by members of the House of Lords science and technology committee.
In a letter published on 12 March, the chair of the Commons committee, Chi Onwurah, said it is clear that “widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken”.
“This is wholly unacceptable and represents a failure for which Dsit [the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology], UKRI and STFC leadership must bear responsibility, and act urgently to address,” Onwurah said in the letter, addressed to Vallance and UKRI chief executive Ian Chapman.
Causes unclear
STFC is having to find cost savings of £162 million by 2029-30 due to its costs outrunning its budget. The council is deciding how to balance cuts between the facilities it runs and its external grants programme for particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics. There are widespread concerns that cuts to the grants programme will hit early career researchers hardest and could push some university physics departments to the brink.
Onwurah said that it was not “not clear whether the current situation is the by-product of irresponsible financial management and inadequate governance; a conscious decision to…deprioritise a particular area of scientific research in favour of research facilities; an unintended consequence of wholesale, rushed reforms to the way the UK funds scientific research; or a combination of all three”.
UKRI is undergoing major reforms to how it directs its funding, but the cost pressures at STFC have been blamed on “extremely ambitious” decisions on how many new projects the council could fund in previous years. Alongside the impending cuts at STFC, UKRI has shelved several major physics infrastructure projects—including an upgrade to a major experiment at Cern, the international particle physics lab—which the funder’s leaders have acknowledged will weaken the UK’s scientific standing.
Need to restore trust
“What is needed now is swift and decisive action to win back the research community’s trust, restore the UK’s international reputation as a scientific research leader, and to prevent the next generation of research leaders from moving abroad,” Onwurah wrote.
Among other things, she asked Chapman and Vallance to provide details of “what transition support will be put in place to support early career researchers impacted by cuts” and how they intend to “prevent more of these researchers from leaving the UK”.
Vallance has said he is “determined that UKRI must find a way to look after” the particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics programme. Both he and UKRI leadership have indicated that it could be absorbed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. STFC is undergoing a prioritisation exercise to determine how cost-savings could be made, which is expected to conclude in the summer.
UKRI and Dsit have been approached for comment.