The UK science budget for 1998-99 was announced by John Battle, the science, industry and energy minister, last week.
In a now common procedure, the actual figures were released in a written answer to a question from a MP, thus avoiding any debate about the figures. The figure for the next financial year will be £1, 338.326 million, an increase of 0.6% on last year but 2% below the official inflation rate.
However, the figures for the two research councils which support most of the physicists in UK universities have fallen slightly. The budget of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is down by 0.87%, while that of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) will fall by 0.3%.
The lobby group Save British Science Society was not impressed: “this is not what we expect from a government whose Prime Minister has committed it to correcting the effects of past under-funding” it said in a press release.
Science Budget allocations
| £ million | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | |
| BBSRC | 183.300 | 185.739 |
| ESRC | 64.896 | 65.990 |
| EPSRC | 386.373 | 382.982 |
| MRC | 289.070 | 290.208 |
| NERC | 165.116 | 171.771 |
| PPARC | 191.850 | 191.268 |
| International Subscription Reserve | 8.800 | 3.028 |
| CCLRC | 1.450 | 1.462 |
| Pensions | 11.530 | 12.298 |
| Royal Society | 22.271 | 22.621 |
| Royal Academy | 3.370 | 3.436 |
| OST Initiatives | 2.302 | 2.376 |
| Joint Research Equipment Initiative | — | 4.147 |
| LINK/Foresight | — | 1.000 |
| Total | 1, 330.327 | 1, 338.326 |
