Royal Society response to Budget 2012

In response to chancellor George Osborne's budget speech today Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:

“The chancellor opened his budget speech with a promise to support industries among which he included science.  He has announced £160 million of investment in research and development at universities and the aerospace industry, there was talk of tax breaks for research and development and for universities looking to turn their science into businesses.

These things are very welcome but on their own they are only green shoots.  In the UK, the Government and industry still invest a smaller percentage of our GDP in research and development than our competitor economies and while that remains the case we will not fulfil the Chancellor’s goal of making the UK into Europe’s technology centre.

If we want science to improve our situation we must think bigger than our competitors in investing in the full range of science and innovation from discovery, through development and on to application. ”