The UK's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has urged government to boost funding for science research ahead of next week's Budget. According to RSC, the UK has risked slipping into the margin of world competitiveness without further investment in science.
The country's economic recovery is threatened by lack of funding for science research and the government must take urgent action, said the society's president.
The chemical science community has produced a report titled "Chemistry: we mean business", setting out a ten-point plan to help Britain derive the greatest possible industrial advantage from its impressive science base.
Chemists and chemical engineers whom the RSC represents reportedly welcomed publication of the government's recent Life Sciences Strategy. Similarly, the Society welcomed the Autumn Statement by which £600 million was invested in eight science priority growth areas. Many of these areas are closely linked to, and dependent upon, innovative chemistry and will contribute significantly towards rebalancing the economy, it is observed. But the scale of the challenge facing the country demands more than has already been offered by the government.
The chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors alone added £27 billion to the economy in 2011. Unless they re-invest in science base now they would miss out on future wealth-creating opportunities and will fall further behind the nation's international competitors.
According to the RSC, the Government wants to make Britain competitive internationally, yet there is still inadequate funding for science when it should be the driving force behind such progress. This central paradox must be addressed.
The RSC is one of five bodies pressing the government to take action in the budget to back science research, the others being the Chemical Industries Association, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Chemical Industry and the Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network.
This group of scientific institutions has written to the Treasury underlining the importance of the chemical sciences to the UK's economic recovery hopes, and is seeking to work with the government to make sure that the chemical science community can help to support the UK growth agenda.
The letter says urgent actions are needed to maintain the UK's competitive edge through a world-leading science base and to get the economy back on the pathway to growth. The RSC report focuses on the vital need of a skills pipeline to guarantee that young, talented people emerge so that British companies get a steady supply of skills in the future.
