Government only funds research with economic benefits
Lord Drayson (Scientific serendipity, 18 May) argues that the government is committed to funding curiosity-driven research. He needs to talk to the chairman (Peter Warry) and chief executive (Keith Mason) of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Their message, both to me in person and to the scientific community, has been unambiguous - the government, and the Treasury in particular, are interested only in new projects that have direct economic impact. It doesn't matter if we have the greatest ideas for projects to study the big bang or the properties of fundamental particles; these will fall on deaf ears unless we can articulate clearly the resulting "economic benefits".Lord Drayson needs to tackle this evident lack of communication between government and the research councils.Professor George EfstathiouUniversity of Cambridge Begging Lord Drayson's patience, but the choice isn't between investing, or not, in science research, but between acknowledging, or not, government's special...
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