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Delight at the amount allocated to the Office of Science and Technology
in last week’s Budget has been tempered by concern at looming cuts in the
research budgets of other government departments.

The OST’s spending on Britain’s research councils will remain steady
for the next two years at about £1.04 billion, after allowing for
inflation. But the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has already
announced a 6 per cent cut in its research budget and other departments
will announce reductions in the new year.

Given the cuts in many areas of public spending announced last week,
the OST’s settlement was greeted with approval in the research councils.
‘It is a considerable triumph,’ said Howard Newby, chairman of the Economic
and Social Research Council. ‘The OST has done very well,’ echoed Tom Blundell,
director-general of the Agricultural and Food Research Council.

The settlement fulfils a promise William Waldegrave made in last summer’s
White Paper on science. He said he would ‘protect’ funding for the research
councils. ‘I am glad I have been able to deliver on my promise,’ said Waldegrave.
‘It has given us room to manoeuvre.’

In his Budget speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that science
was one of the government’s priorities. It was given the same special treatment
as health, education, training and criminal justice.

Eileen Buttle, acting head of the Natural Environment Research Council,
said that the special treatment was a vote of confidence in the research
councils’ ability to contribute to economic recovery. ‘We are seen as relevant,’
she said. ‘Now it is up to us to deliver.’

There was mixed news for university researchers. The freeze on the
public sector pay bill will probably mean no increase for research students
and assistants. But the budgets of the higher education funding councils
will rise by 6.7 per cent next year. Usually, it is up to the councils to
choose how they divide new money between teaching and research. But this
year John Patten, the education secretary, has told them to spend the entire
increase on research.

The scientists who will feel the pinch most are those who work for government
departments. The OST warned that spending on research by other departments
will fall for a second year in succession. The deepest cuts are likely
to be at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department
of Trade and Industry.

The MAFF has already announced that its research budget will fall by
£8 million to £125 million next year. Things will be made worse
by the cost of redundancies as the ministry shifts the balance of research
away from livestock towards horticulture. ‘There will be some pain,’ says
Peter Bunyan, the chief scientist. ‘The majority of that pain will be in
the ministry’s own laboratories.’

Nonetheless, Blundell at the AFRC fears cuts in MAFF funding will also
hit research in his institutes.

The DTI is dropping funding for new research entirely, in favour of
schemes to help companies make the best use of existing technology.