杏吧原创

THE Treasury is rumoured to be plotting the biggest upheaval for decades in
the way Britain funds research in universities. The plan would place all
government funding for university research in a single pot, managed by the
Office of Science and Technology (OST).

The pressure group Save British Science (SBS), which was told of the plan by
a Treasury source, fears that this would deprive universities of their freedom
to decide exactly which research projects they want to pursue.

According to the source, the Treasury is considering scrapping the
鈥渄ual-support鈥� system, under which more than 拢2 billion in research
funding each year is split roughly equally between the universities and the
research councils. Universities are free to decide which projects and staff to
fund with their share of the money, which is channelled through the higher
education funding councils.

Peter Cotgreave, director designate of SBS, fears that this valued freedom
would be lost if the universities鈥� money were to be controlled by the
OST鈥攚hich already holds the purse strings of the research councils. 鈥淕iven
its track record, the OST would be more likely to use the money in a directed
way, which would squeeze the amount of curiosity-driven research that
universities could do,鈥� he claims.

鈥淚t would remove totally from universities any flexibility to establish new
research areas,鈥� agrees Derek Roberts, provost of University College London.

The Treasury would not comment, saying that full details of government
spending plans will be published next month.