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A glimpse of the prospects for next year’s science budget has shocked
the heads of Britain’s research councils. Proposals drawn up by the Department
of Education and Science show that the budget will suffer still more cuts
because of the economic recession. The largest of the councils, the Science
and Engineering Research Council, may have to cut back on grants this year
unless it wins new money for 1992/93.

The cause of the research councils’ dismay is a DES document which outlines
ways the department could live within the cash limits already set by the
Treasury for 1992/93. The document, part of the depart ment’s struggle to
prise extra money from David Mellor, chief secretary to the Treasury, says
that the DES would have to make cuts in order to live within its means.

The paper targets science for a specially hard squeeze. It says the
science budget would have to accept larger cuts than the rest of the education
budget even though it has already reached the point where it can no longer
support existing commitments.

‘We thought there was a widespread realisation that science has been
squeezed too hard,’ said the chairman of one council. ‘Last time, John MacGregor
(the then Education Secretary) got an extra £500 million, but none
of that came to us. There must be a realisation of the consequences of this.’

‘I had not heard anything as gloomy as this,’ said another chairman.
He says other government departments accept the need to increase spending
on science.

The Advisory Board for the Research Councils, which advises the government
on science funding, is currently drawing up its bid for the 1992/93 science
budget. It will argue for an increase next year which substantially exceeds
the rise of £33 million, or 3.5 per cent, it was allotted in last
year’s Autumn Statement on public spending. The SERC has made a bid for
an increase of more than 10 per cent next year. The other councils are bidding
for increases of less than 10 per cent.

Because of the cash shortage this year which led to the decision to
close the Nuclear Structure Facility at Daresbury, Cheshire, the SERC has
only half the money it needs for new grants. But it had hoped to mitigate
the damage – and avoid driving some scientists out of research – by deferring
most of the cost of many three-year grants until the following years. To
do this, it needs to be sure of a rise in government funding next year and
the year after. If the council fails to win more money in next year’s allocation,
grants will suffer this year.

All government spending next year will be squeezed by the recession.
With education taking a prominent place on the political agenda in an election
year, Kenneth Clarke, the Education Secretary, will have to choose between
spending scarce resources on schools or on science.

This summer, Clarke will announce the division of £38 million
held back from this year’s budget because of the confusion caused by the
SERC’s problems. The research councils accept that the SERC needs a large
chunk of the money to increase funding for grants.

Research councils are concerned that they are now unlikely to be reimbursed
for the extra costs caused by last month’s increase in the rate of VAT.
The SERC had hoped it might receive an extra £3 million this year.

The DES may compromise over the publication of the ABRC’s advice to
the government this year. Research councils suggest that the DES satisfies
the Treasury by keeping the size of the budget confidential, while later
publishing the ABRC’s advice on how the budget should be divided up.