Vince Cable in his post as business secretary is expected to announce that the budget for science and research and development in the UK which is partly funded by the Government is to be reduced. This coming at a time where the UK badly needs investment in research and development will likely not come as a surprise. The going trend seems to be cut the services that count and hope we make it anyway.
Suggesting that Research should be academically outstanding and commercially valuable is a rather vague description and would probably see many ambiguous research projects shut down. Research is all about discovery, and many brilliant discoveries have been made and found to be both academically outstanding and commercially viable without the original project being so. A scientist researching electrical discharge accidentally discovered X-Rays. In a discovery made completely accidentally, a contamination in fact, Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
Investors in the Research and Development and Technology sectors are likely to see this as a very bad sign for the UK, a sign of a second recession. The Parliament needs to focus on cutting bills which are huge, such as our military efforts and MP Salaries instead of quick fixes with vague conditions such as this. Meanwhile, over in the USA, President Obama is expected to announce a huge funding boost for Research and Development.
References
BBC News
Alaska Science Forum
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