The Royal Society has written to Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, expressing our concern at the recent announcement that the DTI is to make £68m of cuts to the budgets of the Research Councils, in order to cover deficits elsewhere in the DTI's budget. We are concerned that these cuts infringe the principle that Science Budget funds are strictly ring-fenced within DTI. Additionally a likely outcome of the cuts is a rigidity in the future strategic use of funds by the Research Councils.
