UKRI plan cuts physics funding, threatens CERN
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- UKRI published a four‑year £38.6 bn R&D funding plan that reorganises spending into four “buckets” (curiosity‑driven research, strategic priorities, innovative companies, and enabling UK R&D).
- STFC announced the cancellation of several projects, including a US‑UK nuclear‑physics collaboration, a Daresbury microscopy facility, and a major UK‑led CERN experiment.
- Michele Dougherty warned that UK investment in particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics will fall by 30%, jeopardising university departments and researcher careers.
- Ian Chapman told a select committee that no final decision on the STFC cuts has been made and that the impact will be evaluated before implementation.
- Mark Thomson’s appointment as CERN director general coincided with the cut announcement, raising concerns about UK science diplomacy post‑Brexit.
- UKRI says its bucket system aims for transparency and outcome‑based funding, yet many researchers fear it masks reductions in curiosity‑driven physics funding.
Why it matters: British universities and physics researchers stand to lose a third of their core funding, risking department closures and the loss of talent, while the UK government seeks to streamline R&D spending through the bucket framework. The cuts undermine Britain’s capacity to analyse CERN data and weaken its post‑Brexit science‑diplomacy leverage.
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