From JOHN MULVEY
Bill Mitchell explains in detail the origins of this year’s shortfall
in funding of the Science and Engineering Research Council, of which he
was until recently chairman. The arguments are over £29.5 million,
about 6.5 per cent, and whether inflation has, or has not, been covered
(Talking Point, 23 February).
But the most important points he makes are that the increasing gap between
government spending on science in this country and others like France and
Germany should not be accepted and ‘scientists and engineers should focus
on this sorry state of affairs rather than be deflected into internal feuding
over the distribution of cash.’ These are precisely the considerations that
led to the launch of Save British Science some five years ago.
Had the level of science funding remained at its 1981/82 value as a
fraction of GDP, the total sum invested would by now have been over £1.5
billion greater and the annual rate at least £400 million more. OECD
data place Britain near the bottom of the European league table; this is
the comparison that matters, since it is other countries that increasingly
set the standards in leading research.
Scientists and engineers should be aware that the government’s stance
receives no support from any significant quarter: not from industry; not
from academia; not from Parliament. Just four weeks ago the House of Commons
Select Committee on Education, Science and the Arts called for a doubling
of government funding of civil science-outdoing even us.
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Now is the time for the whole community to pull together. The argument
can, and must be won.
John Mulvey, Executive Secretary Save British Science Oxford
