University faces losing millions in research grants

Jan 14 2008 By Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

ACADEMICS are embroiled in negotiations with the Government to save millions of pounds in research grants being stripped from their budget.

Liverpool University’s physics department could lose more than £5m over the next three years in what its vice-chancellor has described as a “serious” situation which could force staff cuts.

He and senior academics in physics are lobbying the Government and the Science and Technology Facilities Council [STFC] to try to stop the STFC’s delivery plan being implemented.

The plan was passed by ministers in December and will see a 25% cut in research grants given to universities nationwide.

The Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool University, Prof Drummond Bone, said: “There are intensive discussions between universities and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills over the possible effects of STFC plans for physics departments, which will undoubtedly be serious problems.

“But all is not yet lost – there’s some way to go before we are at a terminal position.”

Top-level physicists at Liverpool University are warning the multi-million pound cuts will hit hardest among PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and technical staff.

John Dainton, the Sir James Chadwick Professor of Physics at the university, fears the cuts will force him to shed a quarter of his technical staff and take on 25% fewer PhD and post-doctoral researchers.

Prof Dainton told the Daily Post: “We are going to lose a quarter of our research budget, and over three years that’s £5m.

“As a proportion it’s very damaging because it’s starting a precedent.”

On the possibility of losing staff, Drummond Bone said: “There is liable to be a serious impact on current research.

“Clearly cuts of the magnitude proposed are serious – staff cuts are one of the things that institutions are going to have to consider.”

Academics are particularly frustrated because the cuts come after nearly a decade of growth in science and appears to contradict messages from Government that research will get more support.

Prof Dainton added: “It’s bloody stupid that we should be put in that situation when we have had a government that’s been increasing funding.

“If the science had stopped, we would say ‘OK, let’s move on’ – but the STFC gets in this mess and we are going backwards.

“It’s just stupid – you put all the investment in, then you get the cuts and you can’t do the science you were planning to do.”

STFC was allocated 13.6% more money in November’s comprehensive spending review but because of the way it plans to run the grant system, universities will see less money coming in.

Earlier this month, it was re- vealed that the cuts are expected to cost the jobs of 350 scientists at Daresbury, in Cheshire.

The council also says it is faced with larger overheads from the rising cost of subscribing to international science partnerships, and is picking up the cost of decommissioning the synchrotron radiation source at the Daresbury Laboratory.

A spokesperson for STFC said: “We are in a difficult situation and we regret what’s happening.

“Even though we have got more money, we have not got enough to do everything we had planned.”

STFC senior management will appear in front of a parliamentary select committee on January 21.

benschofield