Press Release: Science must be funded properly
- David Willetts
- Adam Afriyie
Commenting on John Denham’s announcement of the science budget allocation today and complaints from physicists of a multi-million pound shortfall in funding.
Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary David Willetts said:
“It is important that science is funded properly. It should not be about the Government picking winners; it should be about supporting academically excellent research centres. We will scrutinise these proposals to make sure they improve things after last year’s scandal when the Government took £75 million from science by stealth.”
Shadow Science Minister Adam Afriyie added:
“The Government has been caught out by their own spending settlement and forced to announce a review in the last twenty-four hours.
“We will be demanding that the review is conducted swiftly, that it looks at how much money the Science and Technology Facilities Council originally requested, and whether the current funding crisis resulted from the creation of the STFC back in April. Finally, scientists will need to know if the review will change the current spending settlement, or if it will only apply after 2011-12.
“Until then, our first priority must be to minimise damage to UK science by engaging in an open consultation with all those affected.”
END