Possible bad news for Science funding...

Afternoon,

Just read this article on the New Scientist website,

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesword/2010/11/uk-research-spending-decisions.html,

The article reveals that the job of the head of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and in turn the person in charge of allocation of the UK's science spending, could be for the first time in over 25 year be going to a civil servant and not someone who is from the outside, with background with scientific research. Nor will someone from scientific community be involved in the recruitment of the post. Therefore no checks of scientific creditability with be done.

In my view this could have am negative impact on how the money is allocated to different areas in science. For example a less important scientific project might get more funding than project of greater importance due to the lack of understanding from the new head.

This will remove some of the autonomy that science has from the government and Whitehall in terms on where the research budget is spent.

The new scientist article above does a better job at explaining the details.

Until next time.

Reaction to Millbank Riot

In the last couple hours a small minority caused trouble at Millbank Tower during the NUS protest against the raise in tuition fees and the cuts to university.

What has happened at Millbank Tower today has undermined the true and real reason of the protest. I can't see how rioting and destroying a building helps the cause of the demonstration, of example the science is vital movement ensured that in the spending review the research budget was not cut, they didn't fire cupboard, or clash with police.

I believe that we need to prepare for the coming cuts, the NUS should be putting more pressure of universities to offer scholarships of outstanding students, this insure that students are reward for their hard work, and make people think about uni not as the 3 year party as I fear that many do. Another idea maybe less popular but is to cut the number of pointless degrees.

Also universities should look for other sources of investment, whether that be companies or bodies which represent a subject area and encourage them to help with the scholarships. With the investment from companies this could be beneficial for students, one condition be that the company investing in the course could for the best student in the year offer a job, or work placements over the course of the degree, which work experience would add value to the degrees.

But on a final point, I know the problems today was caused at Millbank was due a small few student and some of the very left wing movement which oppose the cuts, but the focus of the news today was removed from the discussion of the tuition fees and university funding and focused on completely the wrong message.

Until next time.