Jodrell Bank to close for the sake of £2.5m a year?

[Tony]

An £80m black hole has appeared in the Government’s Science and Technology Facilities Council so like any good Government quango they are making cuts that effect everyone else.

 

Jodrell Bank (annual cost £2.5m) looks set to close despite six years of work and £8m invested in the important eMerlin project that was due to go live next year.

 

Here's the text of a speech given by Ian Pearson the 'Minister for Space' - Jodrell Bank way back on October 2007. Apparently Jodrell Bank was good then.

And can I just say finally, when I learnt that space was to form part of my portfolio as a Minister, I was enormously pleased. In the few months that I have been involved, I have been impressed and enthused by not just the importance of space and the broad range of activities where research is being conducted here in the UK but also the excellent people I've met. Space I see as an important and integral part of our way forward for humankind.

[Jabberwocky]

Britain takes yet another step back from the future. We`ll be living in caves next.

[not wanted]

It's a joke. How much was spunked away on Northern Rock?

[Phanerothyme]

This is the same government that laments the low number of hard science grads.

 

UK councils annually spend twice as much (£5m) on bottled water for their staff

[evildrneil]

Typical short termism. If there is any sort of financial squeeze then research and development go straight out of the window ignoring the fact that they are the engines that drive new knowledge and new products. The average researchers lot is already not great (badly paid and reliant on short term funding providing no job security) leading to an exodus of researchers either to countries who value them or to stable reasonably paying jobs

[metaphoria]

Perhaps the the future of research and development in science and technology is safer in corporate hands.

[JoeP]

As an occasional amateur radio astronomer this is bad news. JB has a lot of history wrapped up in it, and it's a terrible decision.

 

It was a day-trip to Jodrell Bank when I was a little boy that first got me interested in astronomy, and the idea of being able to 'listen' to the stars absolutely fascinated me.

[happyhippy]

That's really bad news. Really, really bad news.

[Guest Mod_Man]

Surely we can get a petition going. I haven't been to Jodrell Bank yet and would like the opportunity one day.

[JoeP]

Surely we can get a petition going. I haven't been to Jodrell Bank yet and would like the opportunity one day.

 

I genuinely believe that teh Government is trying to dumb us down - there's no other explanation for thier decisions lately.

 

From a mailing list I belong to:

 

Please write to your MP http://www.writetothem.com/ to complain about the threat to withdraw the £2.5 m annual funding from e-Merlin:-

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3492504.ece

 

A bit of background from the same list :

 

In 2007, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

which funds astronomical research, amongst other things, in

the UK began a programmatic review following the government's

comprehensive spending review (CSR). The CSR left STFC with

80 million pounds less than it required in order to fund both

existing commitments and the new projects outlined in its

delivery plan.

 

The recent news stories regarding the UK's possible

withdrawal from the Gemini project, two 8-m telescopes

located in Hawaii and Chile, was the first indication that

the community had that there was a serious problem. The

initial Gemini announcements in November last year came as a

surprise to most of the community, and it was only later that

the wider funding crisis became apparent.

 

In addition to cuts of 25 per cent across physics departments

over the next three years, in order to reduce their outgoings

STFC have to make changes to the projects which they fund,

inevitably removing funds from some existing projects. Two

committees recently reviewed all of the projects in STFCs

remit and ranked them according to priority. These

recommendations were then passed to the Science Board of STFC

who released the results on Monday 3rd March.

 

In this list, MERLIN and the upgraded e-MERLIN come out in

the bottom "lower priority" category. What this means is

that if the board of STFC take the recommendations as they

stand, MERLIN/e-MERLIN is no longer funded after 2009. This

would mean a loss of staff, the loss of some of the funds

which help keep the Lovell telescope operational, and no

further UK funding for the European-wide network of radio

telescopes known as the EVN. It is likely that this would

lead to decommissioning of the MERLIN telescopes, including

the Lovell, and the eventual closure of the Observatory.

 

The STFC have come under attack from the astronomical

community, including strongly-worded objections from Michael

Rowan-Robinson (president of the RAS), over their lack of

consultation in coming up with these recommendations, and

questions have been asked in the Commons regarding STFCs

management and how the funding crisis came about in the first place.

 

*It is important to stress that no funding decisions have yet been

taken.* There is now a three-week consultation period where

researchers who are affected can submit comments and evidence

to STFC

before further committees are set up and actual decisions are made.

This process is being carried out on a far shorter timescale

than anyone would like because funding decisions have to be

made at the start of the financial year.

 

There are a lot of points in our favour: we have an

international user base, the money for the upgrade was

provided by the NWDA rather than STFC on condition that STFC

continue to fund the operational costs, we play a vital role

in European radio astronomy, and e-MERLIN is a stepping stone

towards the SKA which is a major project and high up STFCs

priority list.

 

In summary: yes there is a threat to the funding of MERLIN,

and by association Jodrell Bank Observatory itself, but no

decisions have yet been made. We have a lot of support from

the University, the North West Development Agency, the

astronomers who use our facilities and the wider public.

 

There will be further press coverage of this. I will give

the Society an update at the next workshop as we should know

a bit more by then.