Scientists, New Order Urge UK to Save Jodrell Bank Funding
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced it will withdraw funding for the e-Merlin radio telescope network at Jodrell Bank when the current agreement ends in March 2028, prompting a letter from more than 100 artists, writers and scientists calling the £2.8m annual saving 'foolish and shortsighted.'
- The letter — signed by New Order, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and poet laureate Simon Armitage — was addressed to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the head of UKRI, urging immediate restoration of funding.
- Jodrell Bank hosts the new headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), a global project mapping the first billion years of the universe with sister telescopes in South Africa and Western Australia, and the letter warned SKAO discoveries would otherwise be 'announced from a HQ alongside what would be the world's largest disused radio telescope.'
- The cuts threaten 28 jobs at Jodrell Bank and affect nearly 3,000 researchers, and are part of a broader Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) reduction expected to eliminate around 800 jobs across dozens of facilities.
- Other affected projects include the Rubin Observatory in Chile, facing a 20% cut to UK participation; the Next-Generation Transit Survey, hit with a 45% cut; and a UK withdrawal from the Event Horizon Telescope that imaged the Milky Way's black hole.
- The STFC cited cost overruns, soaring electricity and staff costs, and adverse foreign exchange rates for international collaborations as the reason it needs substantial savings, against UKRI's nearly £10bn annual budget.
Why it matters: Pulling £2.8m a year from Jodrell Bank puts 28 specialist jobs and a research hub for nearly 3,000 scientists at risk while simultaneously undermining the prestige of co-locating the SKAO global headquarters next to a shuttered facility. The decision is part of a wider STFC retrenchment that also drops UK participation in the Event Horizon Telescope and slashes the Rubin Observatory by 20%, signalling a retreat from flagship astronomy infrastructure the UK helped build.
