July 7, 2008

UK’s leading nuclear physicists ‘seriously concerned’ by crisis in university research funding

Nuclear physicists react to the ‘long-term impact’ on the lack of funding for nuclear research among UK universities. They say that research programmes are unable to continue by UK researchers due to the cuts in funding.

Professor Guenther Rosner of Glasgow University, and incoming Chair of NuPECC , said:

“The recent commitment by STFC to the FAIR project has been welcomed by the International Community and gives UK nuclear physicists access to this world leading new European facility. However there is concern at how the UK community will properly exploit this access when the support level for nuclear physics in the UK is only 10% of similar sized European countries.”

Professor Rolf-Dietmar Herzberg of the University of Liverpool chairs the Nuclear Physics Forum, said:

“Since December we have feared that this grants round would be disappointing but we did not expect such a severe cutback of our core science programmes which scored so highly in the peer review process. We are also very concerned about the future ability to provide the necessary skills base to support the government on its path to new nuclear build.”

The Nuclear Physics Forum represents the ‘grass root’ views of UK nuclear physics academics.

Professor William Gelletly OBE, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Surrey University , said:

“These cuts come at a time of great excitement in nuclear physics research worldwide. Major new facilities are being constructed in Europe which will allow us to answer questions such as where in the Universe and how the chemical elements are made, what dictates the properties of the proton and neutron and what is the heaviest element we can make in the laboratory. The UK should be playing a leading role in this enterprise instead of hanging on to the coat-tails of others.”

Professor Peter Butler, Head of the Nuclear Physics Group at Liverpool University , said:

“The recent grant announcements coupled with the expected small investment in new overseas facilities confirms the UK’s position in the second league for research funding, while the effect on morale particularly on younger staff threatens to compromise recruitment into a strategically important subject area. These dire consequences can only be averted if HM government acknowledges that there is a looming crisis for UK-led fundamental research.”

Professor Jonathan Billowes, Head of the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Manchester, said:

“The grant announcement has been particularly depressing for our younger researchers and academics who are wondering if there is a career for them in nuclear physics. They are essential to the future health of this fundamental discipline which provides the underpinning research, education and expertise in nuclear applications to energy, health and nuclear decommissioning.”

The University of Manchester is also home to the Dalton Institute for Nuclear Skills.

Dr Paddy Regan, Reader in Nuclear Physics at the University of Surrey, said:

“The UK’s academic nuclear physics community more than punches it weight on the international scene with major leadership roles in a number of high-profile areas of fundamental research. The academics involved in these pursuits are the same ones who underpin vital training courses in nuclear knowledge within the UK university sector. Any reduction places the UK’s role in nuclear physics and related radiation expertise in jeopardy and needs to be addressed. Investment in nuclear power, defence, medical diagnostics, treatment and related technologies is all very well, but without core funding for the subject of nuclear physics at the University level, the UK will be chronically short of trained manpower in these vital sectors for decades to come.”

STFC set up a consultation committee chaired by Professor Paul Nolan, Head of Physics at the University of Liverpool as part of the recent Programmatic Review of UK funding for nuclear physics.

The report from this committee, said:

“Following the transfer from EPSRC, STFC has accepted stewardship of nuclear physics training for the UK. As well as supporting the academic base, this also includes responsibility for training the personnel which the UK needs for energy (the government has recently committed to new build and is concerned at the looming skills shortage), medical radiation treatment (a shortage of trained physicists to operate recently installed facilities) and defence (a decision to renew Polaris and the need to train a new generation of physicists for the government laboratories).”