A letter published in the Lancet asks what funders are doing to minimise waste in research. read more
The Chancellor Philip Hammond, has announced the spring budget. read more
The White House is proposing to cut the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a leading government agency on climate science, by a reported 17 percent.
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It has been announced that the new CEO of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) will be Professor Sir Mark Walport. read more
The government has drafted legislation on a sugar tax, first announced earlier in the year, that confirms a two-band levy for sugar-added soft drinks. read more
The Cabinet Office announced new standards in government grants which confirm that the anti-lobbying clause, proposed earlier this year, has been abandoned. read more
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have drafted guidelines on outdoor air pollution and health. These comments accompanied a press briefing. read more
In his autumn statement, the Chancellor Phillip Hammond, confirmed an additional investment in R&D, rising to an extra £2 billion per year by 2020-21. read more
In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Teresa May is to pledge an extra £2bn a year in funding for scientific research and development by 2020. read more
The UK energy system is going through a period of rapid change. The implications of the vote to leave the EU and subsequent changes within government are largely unknown. Uncertainties about the future of the energy system were already high; these changes have compounded them. The UK Energy Research Centre has produced an evidence-based commentary – addressing heat, transport, electricity, gas, and other major components of the energy system – which aims to take stock of UK energy policy ahead of the Autumn Statement, the Industrial Strategy and the Emissions Reduction Plan, and make recommendations for action by government. read more
This blog contains the thoughts of the author rather than representing the work or policy of the Science Media Centre. … read more
There are some things that the scientific community are generally agreed on. That we need a stronger voice for science in government, most especially after Brexit, that what government spends on science is still too low (0.49% of GDP compared to the EU average of 0.67%) and that decisions about what research is conducted need to be free from government interference. But is the new U.K. Higher Education and Research Bill going to deliver all these goals? Unusually the scientific community is divided with Paul Nurse and the Royal Society believing that the bill presents the best chance of achieving some of the changes desperately needed, while others think it poses new risks. A strongly worded leader in Nature this week called on scientists to oppose the bill on the grounds that it opens the door to political interference and called on the scientific community to address the issues in public as well as negotiating behind closed doors. read more
Following a delay it has been announced that the UK government has approved plans for a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset which will have financial input from France and China. read more
A report from the parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee has warned the government that, based on current trends, the UK will miss its target to provide 15% of energy from renewable sources. read more
Extension of access to primary care is the subject of a paper published in the journal PLOS Medicine in which the authors report that extending access was associated with a reduction in emergency department visits in their study of cases in 2014. read more
The extent of marijuana use in the USA is explored in a paper published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal with the authors reporting an increase in prevalence and frequency of use in adults since 2007 alongside a decreased perception of harm from the drug. read more
It has been announced that certain EU funding for research projects will be guaranteed by the UK government after Brexit. read more
The observed ‘weekend effect’ in the NHS, where patients admitted to hospital over the weekend have worse outcomes than patients admitted during the week, has underpinned many rows and debates about how hospital services should be funded and structured. The move towards a ‘seven day NHS’ with equal levels of senior staffing across all days has become a hot political topic, but are the claims about the weekend effect accurate and evidence-based? It is a challenging area to research, but the emerging picture is that the weekend effect is much more complex than it appears. One key group conducting research in this field is the HiSLAC project, which is investigating the impact of specialist-led care on emergency admissions. read more
This has been a bruising week for the scientific community. Many I spoke to describe going through something like the … read more
Following a referendum the UK has voted to leave the European Union. read more
