Scientists oppose proposed cuts to research facilities in open letter ahead of UK’s budget announcement

Astronomers, particle physicists and other scientists have signed an open letter calling on the government to stop proposed cuts to several UK research facilities, ahead of the autumn budget later today. Those who signed the letter have a ‘deep concern’ that these cuts ‘risk seriously undermining the world-leading science the UK does’.

The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) announced in July that it was seeking to save £160 million over the next four years by reducing budgets for or closing several key research facilities across the country. This includes facilities at the Harwell site in Oxfordshire, such as the Diamond Light Source synchrotron, as well as the Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire.

Various scientists, including particle physicist Brian Cox and the Royal Astronomical Society president Jim Wild, have now signed an open letter to the UK’s chancellor John Healey, expressing ‘deep concern’ about the proposed cuts. The trade union Prospect, which represents non-academic scientists and members throughout STFC, helped coordinate the letter.

‘If these cuts go ahead, they will cause lasting and possibly irreparable damage to the UK’s scientific capabilities,’ the letter warns. It adds that this ‘damage has already started’, when funding for the research plane that takes airborne atmospheric measurements was scrapped earlier this year. It also follows UKRI opening a voluntary exit scheme earlier this month as a way to cut costs.

Signatories of the letter are asking Healey to ‘avert these cuts’ until an assessment of their economic impact has been carried out and to reassess the issue in the 2027 spending review.

Sue Ferns, who is the main signatory of the letter on behalf of Prospect, says that ‘the chancellor and prime minister have set an admirable ambition to be an innovation nation but seem to have completely overlooked the catastrophic damage these proposed cuts will [do] to our capability in this area’. ‘The budget is a clear chance to show that this country is still serious about leading the world in science,’ she adds.