world
UK Research Labs Scale Back Projects After Spending Review
UK Research and Innovation must cut more than £160 million from planned research over four years due to spiraling costs. National laboratories face the largest reductions while particle physics and astronomy cuts were limited after lobbying. Overall R&D spending rises to £22.6 billion a year by 2029-30.
Jul 9, 9:30 AM·2m read1 source
moneycontrol.comAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Projects at some of the UK's most prestigious research labs will be scaled back following a review of government spending plans, BBC News reported. Research that could be affected includes the hunt for new cancer treatments, the design of better batteries and the search for what the Universe is really made of.
Funding for research into particle physics at Cern and astronomy projects is also affected.
The UK Research and Innovation Agency says it has to make savings of more than £160 million over the next four years because costs for planned research have spiralled. The government has increased overall R&D spending to record levels, rising to £22.6 billion a year by 2029-30. UKRI's share of that has risen from around £9 billion to nearly £10 billion over the same period.
Prof Sir Ian Chapman told BBC News the savings were needed because spending forecasts showed they could no longer afford to pay for the research increases they had planned for up to 2030. UKRI will spend £1.6 billion on artificial intelligence. Quantum technologies will receive around £1 billion and £750 million will be allocated to build a national supercomputer.
Britain's national laboratories face the deepest squeeze, with the money for their scientific work set to fall by well over half. At Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre will see a budget cut of £8 million a year by 2029.
The Scientific Computing Department, split between Daresbury and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire, will have its budget fall by £10 million a year, with reduced access to computing power.
