The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has expressed concern over the decision of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to slash more than 66 percent from capital funding in science during the next academic year. The move will act as a ticking time-bomb for the future, Dr. Richard Pike, Chief Executive of RSC, has noted.
Dr. Pike has further pointed out that university science departments have already had to deal with budget reductions in recent years, leaving academics relying on ancient laboratory equipment. The HEFCE decision to reduce the science capital budget from £158 million this academic year to £53 million in 2011-12, as departments simultaneously factor in operational research cuts, serves as a "double-whammy". He called on the government to make a visible commitment to high quality infrastructure that supports and invests in research that will grow a science and technology driven economy.
Announcement of the cuts comes just 24 hours after 2,400 skilled jobs were lost at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. With almost 6,000 jobs lost in the pharmaceutical sector in the past 12 months alone, the RSC believes areas such as high-quality, well-equipped university research departments must fill the gap in the industrial pipeline.
One of every five pounds in the UK economy is dependent on developments in chemical science research, and the chemical-reliant industries supported six million jobs in 2007, according to a report produced by Oxford Economics for the RSC. Before further research cuts were announced, chemistry departments in the UK were already running at a deficit of 8.7-77.9 percent, according to a joint RSC/Institute of Physics report carried out in June 2010.
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