Significant cuts could damage the foundations of UK research

“Researchers who receive funding from the STFC will rightly be worried and concerned at the contents of the letter they have received this week. On the one hand it reiterates the UKRI and DSIT assertion that curiosity-led research will be protected, yet on the other it sets out the need for 30% cuts and asks researchers to model how they could cut their active research budgets by up to 60%.

“UKRI need to explain how the cuts detailed in this letter are consistent with the commitment to protect curiosity-led research. If the investment is not going to this STFC funded research, what research will it be funding and on what basis have these decisions been made?

“The UK’s world leading national research facilities are also facing significant cuts. These facilities are vital to the discovery research that underpins the UK’s scientific strength across many disciplines and could be put at serious risk.

“The ongoing restructure to UKRI funding is not going to be possible without some disruption – however every effort must be made to explain the changes, decisions and rationale to the sector. The information we have had so far is a failure in communication and transparency. Any changes should not put the UK’s curiosity-led research, the foundation on which our scientific strength is based, at risk.”