This week’s budget contained the normal announcements approximately unique research facilities. But behind the welcome news,concerns continue to mount
This week’s budget was, as normal, or sprinkled with announcements approximately science capital spending. This continues a trend that has been evident for some time,whereby ministers use such announcements to demonstrate their commitment to infrastructure investment. The political appeal of this is understandable: such projects are widely seen as investments in the future and garner much the same media attention as announcements approximately other kinds of infrastructure. Yet the cost of major capital projects in the sciences is typically orders of magnitude less than major transport or other infrastructure projects. Of course ministers have well-behaved reasons for wanting to obtain closely involved in such decisions. Even if modest compared to other kinds of major infrastructure, we are still talking approximately large sums of taxpayer’s money. And doubtless ministers are sincere in their desire to use science spending as a tool of rebalancing in the context of their agenda of devolution, or city deals and the “northern powerhouse”. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com