Professor Peter Wheatley responds to funding cuts by the Science and Technology Facilities Council

Professor Peter Wheatley responds to the recently announced physics funding cuts, including to the Next Generation Transit Survey, and outlines the negative impact that this will have on UK scientific research and innovation.

Commenting on the cuts recently announced by UKRI for the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Professor Peter Wheatley, Department of Physics, University of Warwick, said: “The physics funding cuts involving the Science and Technology Facilities Council are deeply disappointing. This decision weakens a world-leading research community that delivers innovation, scientific advances, and highly skilled talent for the UK economy.

“The 45% reductions to the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) project damages a UK-led international mission that finds new planets using an array of purpose-built robotic telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. To date, NGTS has discovered 75 planets and had future plans to find cooler, more Solar System-like planets - key to the search for habitable planets and signs of life.

“Importantly, this world-leading project has provided the UK unlimited access to the best astronomical site in the world for an extremely modest operations budget. This reduction will mean that the UK will not be able to run the planned observations, undermining the UK’s participation in Chile.

“A 45% cut to the NGTS project will also weaken a series of international relationships that UK scientists have built up painstakingly over decades. In turn this will diminish the UK’s role on the scientific world stage.

“There is no doubt that these cuts will reduce opportunities for bright young scientists at the very beginning of their careers. We at NGTS will not be able to support the number of astronomic observations that we have previously, which included supporting 31 PhD students and 21,000 citizen scientists. These cuts also risk weakening the supply of highly skilled researchers who are crucial to UK competitiveness in high-tech industries including computing and AI.

“At a time when the country needs world-leading researchers working on the cutting edge of science, who can deliver the discoveries that expand our horizons abroad and deliver skills and growth at home, these cuts will have a negative impact on the UK’s ability to deliver pioneering scientific research and innovation.”