• Question: Hello chaps, what do you think about the current Lib Dem/Tory goverment and what it is doing for science or your research in general. Thanks, Ryan, Karis, Will and Dan.

    Asked by ryanevans429 to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      During the recession we have seen alot of charities and government bodies reducing how much money they have available for research. In many Universities, departments decreased the number of staff they had to cope with less funding. This situation isn’t going to get better quickly and the Lib Dem/Tory government promised prior to elections that they had ring fenced money for science. So far I haven’t seen a big change with the new government but I am hoping things won’t get any worse. At the moment I think it is the speed of recovery of the economy more than the coalition government which will affect funding for science/research in general, at the moment.

    • Photo: Andy Norton

      Andy Norton answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Great question. Science in universities often lags behide the rest of society in some sense. As groups/departments often gets grants that extend for several years, we haven’t really noticed any effect yet in terms of the cut in funding. Whether there will be a cut in a few years time is unclear. There could be a reduction in the amount of funding given to students/groups, but we’ll see.

      I think that the big change that might occur is to do with the undergrad students that are coming to the university, which will in turn affect the quality of researchers that might be in the uni (as a lot of undergraduate students go on to do research afterwards). A lot of students are being put off by the increase in fees, and a lot are applying to the US and other countries instead rather than to UK unis. This reduction in the amount of students applying as a result, as well as some students only applying to courses that they think are “value for money” or will give them good prospects in the future, might mean that some departments will close. Whether this will affect science is unclear.

      But, overall, there is a lot of unease and unrest in our Uni at the moment.

    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hello all of you…

      Science funding in this country feels like it’s in a pretty sorry state. Compared to other countries, the UK is brilliant at science – we have some world experts working in this country, but we don’t have the funding to match. Many universities (where much of research takes place) and organisations that provide money to fund research have experienced cuts, and this filters down to us – there is less money to go round. I think that investing in science and education is one of the best things a government can do for their country, and it’s important for scientists to keep shouting about their great work.

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