The Sunday Times, CERN and STFC

Institute of Physics statement

5 October 2009

Institute of Physics News

The Institute of Physics prepared a statement for The Sunday Times article of 4 October which raises concerns about UK involvement in the European particle physics laboratory CERN and other high profile global astronomy projects.

Dr. Robert Kirby-Harris, Chief Executive at the Institute of Physics (IOP), said, "IOP is not aware of any plans to pull out of our international partnerships - I am sure if this were under serious consideration we would have heard it directly from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). However, we are very concerned about the financial pressures which STFC is facing. The announcement last week that research grants were to be awarded for a one year period only has inevitably caused uncertainty and damaged morale in the physics community - it is almost impossible to plan sensibly on this timescale.

“STFC's budget is being squeezed because of a misguided government decision to transfer the risk of foreign exchange fluctuations to individual Research Councils. While the Treasury may be able to offset currency risks against the benefits of a competitive pound, Research Councils cannot, and STFC especially is severely affected because so much of its budget is linked to international subscriptions.

"Science and technology are real strengths for the UK. Investing in them will pay dividends for the future. While we appreciate the current pressures on public expenditure, it would be a very bad business decision to build world-leading new facilities and then cut off the funding for UK researchers to make use of them.

“This argument applies equally to CERN or the European Southern Observatory, and to the ISIS and Diamond facilities in the UK which are run by STFC and used for a wide range of research from materials science to biotechnology. The advantages of exploiting this investment far outweigh the savings from penny-pinching. For what is small change to the government, they could relieve the financial pressure on STFC and avoid doing lasting and wholly disproportionate damage to the UK science base, to the recruitment and training of the next generation of scientists and engineers, and to our reputation as an international partner. I hope they will find a way to do so."

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