Common room clashes with boardroom on science budget

[Robbien]

Source: Financial Times

Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, has sparked a furious row with top UK scientists by calling for a sweeping review of the country’s £4bn-a-year science budget to emphasise projects with the potential to bring short-term industrial benefits.

In his capacity as the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK’s premier body for engineers, Lord Browne has told senior officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) that they should “rebalance” government spending on science as a way to emphasise engineering and high-value manufacturing.

As a corollary to this, some areas of basic science – for instance particle physics, space telescopes and Antarctic science – could lose out.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a588ac9a-9a7d-11df-87fd-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss

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This Lord Browne was the guy at BP who was in charge of cutting costs at BP to maximize profits. It was he not Hayward who put in place the policy of cutting spending for safety and maintenance at BP.

Now he is put in charge of UK's national budget and wants the UK national science budget spent for BigOil's/BigBusiness benefit instead of being spent for public interest.

Well what else did they expect when choosing the guy?

[txlibdem]

1. On the one hand I lament the loss of basic science research

But it is "the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills" so it would seem their major focus ought rightly to be on getting science innovations out of the lab and onto the factory floor.

That does not mean that basic science should not be done, just that there are other labs for that. Someone has to be responsible for actually making something out of all that research.

[defendandprotect]

2. Right wing corruptors never sleep . . . on and on they go . . .

corrupting everything they touch -- !!

[on point]

3. Business ought to invest in Business R&D. Change the name of the dept and stick to basic science

[JDPriestly]

4. When you have no viable, strong left in a country, when the party of labor

and opportunity becomes the party of sleaze and pandering to the rich, then you get guys like this Lord Browne in charge of things -- the worst of the worst.

This is why I am so disappointed by Obama for not staying true to the agenda he ran on when it comes to things like the public option. That is why I cannot understand why Obama allows crimes that occurred in the administration preceding him to go unpunished. He will lose the confidence of the American people, and with his loss, a foolish, inept and untrustworthy right-wing group like the one in charge in the UK now will take over. It is very sad.