Science and research: Protected or pilfered?

By Pamela Nash MP

We live in uncertain times. Not least because of the fragile economic situation both at home and globally, and not least because this Coalition government is embarking on the biggest and sharpest programme of deficit reduction this country has seen in living memory. To top it off, people are very uncertain about what the latest CSR actually means in practice.

Take science and research, an area close to my heart.

The Coalition announced that the science budget would be frozen at £4.6 billion a year.

Some have hailed it as a big win for the scientific and research community, and I congratulate the excellent work of the Campaign for Science and Engineering for trying to protect science for the public spending knife, but the full story seems unclear. A colossal 40% of budget savings are expected to be made in Higher Education funding more broadly and a research pot freeze is a real-terms cuts. The extent to which those cuts will impact on research, or undermine UK competitiveness in high-value added R&D intensive industries remains to be seen.

As the former Liberal Democrat MP, Evan Harris, points out in his Guardian blog, we need to look into the detail and ask questions about the delivery of the CSR to find out what it all really means for science and research in this country.

One week after the Comprehensive Spending Review, tonight, I will chair a Young Fabians ‘Technology and Society’ Network high-level debate about the implications of the cuts for UK science and research and how Labour, as a responsible opposition, should respond. Please do contact the young Fabians if you are interested in the event or the issues more broadly.

Through my role on the Science and Technology Committee, I will keep a close eye on these issues to help ensure we keep our global lead in science and research and, most importantly, that we support the jobs and opportunities for our young people that come from being a world leader in research.