Science committee chair warns against UK research funding cut

Cuts to research funding would send a “negative message” to the UK’s science community as well as global investors, a leading MP has warned.

Chi Onwurah, the new chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, said that the government’s ambitions were “driven significantly by research and development”, and that failing to back this with investment in the budget on 30 October would “send a negative message to potential investors”.

Ms Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West who previously spent 11 years as shadow science minister, warned that without continued investment, the UK could lose its world-leading status in research and innovation.

“We have the best science environment in Europe, and one of the top three in the world,” she said. “But if you don’t continually struggle to make sure that we’re still in that position, we will lose that position.”

The MP’s comments came amid concern from university leaders that the budget could result in a flat-cash settlement for research, while also forcing the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to take on the costs of the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe – estimated to stand at between £800 million and £1 billion.

Sector leaders have warned that a settlement on these terms would force “deep cuts” across the UK research landscape.

But Ms Onwurah said it was her understanding that it had been decided under the previous government that Horizon spend would “categorically” come out of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) budget. 

“Cutting the science budget overall I think would send the wrong kind of message, but folding in Horizon into DSIT is something that was always part of what the last Conservative government did, and I don’t see that that sends the wrong message in itself. But the overall envelope of spending on science, innovation and technology is something that we will be judged on,” she said.

The European Union’s successor to Horizon, which is currently in early planning stages and known as FP10, “is something the UK would want to be a part of”, Ms Onwurah said.

However, echoing the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, she said there were “hard decisions” to be made over higher education and research in the upcoming budget.

While the Labour manifesto dodged details on how it would go about putting UK higher education on a “sustainable financial footing”, “this is something that I don’t think the government can escape” within this parliament or “possibly within the budget”, she said.

Ms Onwurah, a chartered engineer, additionally praised the new committee, which includes former science minister George Freeman and Kit Malthouse, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on life sciences – for their backgrounds in science and technology.

“Every single one of our members has experience in science and technology, and I don’t think that’s ever been the case before. So, this is a really strong committee which has a wide range of real-world experiences from across the country.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com