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The British government has ruled out extra funding for systematic biology,
the science of naming and classifying organisms. In a report on systematic
biology published last year, the House of Lords Select Committee on Science
and Technology called on the government to earmark an extra Pounds Sterling
5 million spread over five years for systematics research.

In its belated reply – 17 months after the Lords’ report – the government
rejected the call for extra money, saying it ‘does not at present see the
need to single out further funds for systematic bilology’.

Neil Chalmers, the director of the Natural History Museum in London, says he
is ‘underwhelmed’ by the government’s response. ‘Just when systematic
biology was poised to come into its own, it’s being held back,’ he says. ‘It
is being substantially impeded by lack of funding.’ Chalmers says that the
largest systematics research institutions in Britain, including the Natural
History Museum, have taken many new initiatives themselves in the past year,
such as standardising databases with those of American institutions. ‘The
government’s response does not give the kind of added impetus we’d hoped
for,’ he says.