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British Government Slashes Scientific Research
asobala writes "The British Government has slashed the funding of scientific Research Councils by £68 million. The Research Councils most affected by this include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has been hit by a £29 million reduction in funding, and the Medical Research Council, which is seeing a £10.7 million reduction in funding. The response of the BBSRC biological research council announces that the council will have to cut 20 new grants and reduce expenditure on new equipment."
As a socially-responsible country, the UK government has to fund NHS to greater and greater levels. The UK is taking in lots of new immigrants and this requires more and more health care spending.
There are plenty of other socially-responsible programs that need funding as well.
You can only cut the pie so thin, and then somebody doesn't get a slice at all. NHS or science? People or theories? This is precisely the discussion going on in the US and so far the "theories" side is still winning by enough of a margin that there still is a NASA. It will be clear how things went when NASA is de-funded to support health care.
and with the strings attached its not always wanted either.
Most US advances are not made with government money. It just doesn't work that way. Look towards the corporations leading the edges of technology to see what is really getting done that applicable to everyday life.
The problem with government grants is that you end up with both good and bad, new ways to heal people and usually multiple ways to kill them. At least pharms are a one way street in the corporate world... still...
don't bemoan a problem that isn't as drastic, let alone far reaching as many claim it is. What harms science is regulation an inteference by government, not lack of funds from it
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
They gotta cut costs somewhere when you are expecting other operating costs to go through the roof. Like M$ says, the purchase price is just the start of TCO. Science, who needs science when we can have mid 90s style INNOVATION. Whooo.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.