January 24, 2013

expert reaction to details of government expenditure on science

Science minister David Willetts set out details of how most of the £600m for science, announced in the autumn statement, would be spent.

Beck Smith, from the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), said:

“After his speech at the Royal Society, the Chancellor was called to put his money where his mouth was and today’s allocation of the money from the Autumn Statement for science does that. CaSE has welcomed all the recent additional spends on science – they go a long way to compensating for the £1.7bn shortfall the sector faced following the 2010 Spending Review.

“What the sector needs now is a long-term strategic vision for science which spans all Government departments, so that policies in areas like immigration and education work together to ensure the UK really can be the best place in the world to do science.

“Our recent 4Growth campaign – which calls for the 4G spectrum auction revenue to be reinvested in science and innovation – outlined four key areas the Government needs to invest in if we’re to become a growing, high-tech economy.”