Date published: 2007/03/05
The BBC says:
The heads of the agencies responsible for funding British science have told BBC News that ring-fenced money for research should not be diverted to pay for failures at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Their comments follow an announcement by the DTI that it is taking back £68m from the Research Councils.
The department says it has had to reduce science spending for one year to pay for "exceptional" and ongoing costs resulting from the collapse of the Rover car company and the unexpected increase in support needed to cover British Energy's nuclear liabilities.
No-one likes having their budgets cut, but the heads of the research councils are concerned that the claw-back signals an alarming shift in the way in which government funds science.
According to Professor Julia Goodfellow, who heads up the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), said the DTI had raided money specifically protected and earmarked for investment in science to pay for departmental failures.
"There is a ring fence there for a reason," said Professor Goodfellow.
"Science innovation and research is about the medium to long term. If you start cutting it because of a short-term need then you have real problems."
At least the research councils have spoken out, not that it will do much good. The DTI would be a bit more plausible if anybody in the department was disciplined or sacked because of this mess, or if the DTI's own internal budget had been seriously cut back because of this mess. But you can guarantee that the one body unaffected by this mess is the DTI itself.
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