Science funding is vital for growth

UANTUM, semiconductors, AI and advanced materials now feature heavily in plans for UK economic growth.

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To most people they probably sound more like themes encountered in a science fiction novel than an industrial plan. But they are, quite rightly, a key opportunity for the UK’s future prosperity.

What tends to receive less attention is that often it’s hard science like physics that makes these ambitions possible, and the funding that keeps them going when they're just early stage research ideas, sometimes years away from reality.

Disciplines such as particle physics, nuclear physics and astronomy rarely feature in regional growth strategies, which very often focus on themes such as transport and infrastructure.

They can also be easy to caricature as remote from the everyday economy. In reality, they are where much of the UK's technical capabilities are formed: specialist instrumentation, material science, analytical methods, theoretical modelling and the kind of engineering problem-solving that later turns up in unexpected places.

The reported 30% reduction in the research budget of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has ramifications well beyond academia. STFC supports university research, major national facilities and the UK's longstanding commitments to organisations such as CERN and the European Southern Observatory.