Astronomy and particle physics : report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology
- Date:
- 2011
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Astronomy and particle physics : report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![good teaching. They go hand in hand. I don’t think you can put a particular emphasis on one and not the other”.” However, it was put to us in oral evidence that the STFC could, and should, place more emphasis on the resources available to grant funding both now and in the future.*° Indeed, in response, Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the STFC, affirmed that: we need to get the case across that we need to invest in talent. That is what is going to keep this country healthy in the future and we are a prime source of that talent. [I], for one, will certainly be promoting the case, as the economy improves, that we need to see this [research grants] as an excellent place to make additional investment.*! 56. We welcome the STFC’s commitment to maintain its resource spending on research grants over the next four years. We also commend the high priority and value the STFC places on investment in researchers. A UK brain drain? 57. Looking forward to the next four years, we received evidence that past reductions in the number of grants awarded mean the UK is starting from a lower base than it should, which risks losing some of the UK’s best young scientists to overseas countries.** The submission from the Far Universe Advisory Panel and the Near Universe Advisory Panel, two of five standing advisory panels which report to STFC’s Science Committee for Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics, said that past reductions in the STFC’s research grants had already resulted in many of the brightest students looking abroad to continue their careers. Such concern that past and future funding constraints may have long-term impacts on the UK’s reputation and ability to attract and retain the world’s best scientists were echoed in oral evidence by Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, President of the Institute of Physics,84 and perhaps most significantly, by the young scientists we spoke to. Anna Barth from Camden School for Girls said: One thing that made me a little bit nervous, and I don’t know what could be done about it, is that, at Harvard, UCL and even with the science teachers I have now, a lot of their time is spent trying to work out where they are going to get funding from for different projects and getting grants and less time actually doing science. That doesn’t seem too appealing.*° 58. Hillary Lamb from Stroud High Schools believed that pursuing a career in a theoretical subject such as astronomy or particle physics was particularly difficult in Britain and an area “[one] might have to go over to Europe to do”.*° As Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of 2Q28 8° Q 95 [Professor Bode and Professor Peacock] 81 Qq 143-144 82 Ey w26, paras 3-5 [Far Universe Advisory Panel (FUAP) and Near Universe Advisory Panel (NUAP)] 83 Ev w26, paras 4-5 m0 SS 8.0 17 86 As above](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3222204x_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
