Chancellor boosts science spending
04 October 2011The Chancellor George Osborne has announced a £195 million boost to science spending in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference.
The additional capital funding includes £145 million for High Performance Computing and e-infrastructure and £50m for the Graphene Global Research and Technology Hub.
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society said; “It is good news that George Osborne has found an additional £200 million to invest in science. Last year’s cuts to the budget for buildings and equipment posed a serious threat to the UKs long term leadership in science and it is welcome news that the Government is trying to find the funds to reverse those cuts.
It is encouraging that they understand the key role science and innovation can play in building a more robust economy – they must continue to back that understanding up with investment, preferably in the form of a 10 to 15 year plan developed in consultation with the science community.”
Graphene is the area of research of Royal Society Research Professor Andre Geim and Royal Society University Research Fellow Konstantin Novoselov who jointly won last year’s Nobel Prize for Physics.