October 3, 2011

expert reaction to George Osborne’s announcement on funding for graphene research

The Chancellor announced £50m in funding for research in technologies based on graphene.

Sir John Beddington, Government Chief Scientific Adviser, said:

“The discovery of graphene was an excellent indicator of the fundamental creativity of UK science base. The application of this discovery in a wide range of areas has truly enormous potential. I’m pleased to see that new funding will be allocated to the relevant Research Council and the Technology Strategy Board to exploit the innovative potential of graphene here in the UK.

“As researchers, businesses and Government require ever increasingly complex modelling in a wide range of areas, there is a danger that the computing power available to them will no longer meet their needs. High performance computing has the potential to provide the opportunity for greater insights into areas such as climate change, astrophysics and biotechnology, and to allow policy makers to act with a greater degree of certainty than at present. I therefore welcome today’s announcement of increased investment in high performance computing.”

Dr Mark Miodownik, King’s College London, said:

“New materials have always been the key to innovation thats why the ages of civilisation have been traditionally named after materials: the stone age, the iron and now the silicon age; graphine really could define a new age, it really is that remarkable. I take my hat off to Geim and Novoselov, for their dedication to the art of being curious about the world.

“The UK is world class for materials science, its great to see the government recognising that. Perhaps the Conservatives could have their conference in London next year, there are plenty of potentially revolutionary materials being developed down here that could do with £50 million investment, instead of what we have at the moment, which is a freeze in funding.”

Imran Khan, Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering , said:

“It’s extremely encouraging that, for the second time in seven months, the Chancellor has set aside a significant extra investment for science and engineering. In February’s Budget, George Osborne pledged £100m for research and development facilities across the UK. We need to see more of this kind of ambition.

“The new money pledged for exploiting Britain’s global lead in Graphene research, and improving our computing infrastructure, should promote economic growth in these high-tech sectors for many years to come – beyond the next election. Supporting capitalisation of cutting-edge British research is something that politicians of all stripes should aspire to.

“Investing in knowledge-intensive sectors, which the UK will simply have to focus on for future growth, is even more important at times of economic turmoil – we’ll only be able to successfully rebalance the economy if the Government actively supports and promotes these areas.

“We hope to see that these decisions were made fully in concert with the independent scientific and engineering Research Councils. And we do need to be very clear and note that these new investments are coming in the wake of enormous cuts to the nation’s science and engineering base. Last month we released an analysis showing that £1.7bn will have been cut from research and development funds by 2014-15.

“We applauded the Government’s decision to ‘invest intelligently’ through the Budget, but said that we need an explicit long-term strategy to put science and engineering at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery. If we don’t see that, home-growth discoveries like groundbreaking research into Graphene could be a thing of the past. Hopefully, the Chancellor’s important announcements today can help form the foundations of just such a strategy.”

Professor Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of University of Manchester, said:

“We were delighted to host a visit this morning from the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister for Universities and Skills who visited our graphene research facility and chatted with our Nobel laureates, Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov about this very exciting investment in graphene. The announcement is timely because it is almost exactly a year today since the Nobel prize was announced; over this time the pace and scale of graphene research in Manchester has escalated dramatically and its commercial potential is growing by the day. It is extremely important that the UK government clearly recognises the importance of investment in science as an economic driver.”