'Large Hadron Colliders All Round!'

A large hadron collider. Come on: you know you want one.

It has come to our attention that some people may be swayed by the promises of R&D investment made by the major parties when it comes to voting in the general election on June 8th. Both Labour and the Conservatives have promised to increase spending on research and development to 3% of GDP, and the Lib Dems have pledged to 'double' R&D spending across the economy. 

Don't listen to them. They'll promise it all and deliver nothing. When it comes to empty promises, only one party has the necessary track record: The Fundermental Understanding of Critical Knowledge for All party. We are committed to strong and stable research leadership. We recognise that 3% of GDP is a derisory insult to the the people of this great country of ours. It is positively European. It reeks of garlic and foreignness. 

Willetts Named as Universities and Science Minister

Research Fortnight is reporting that David Willetts has been named as minister for universities and science. He was previously the Conservative's shadow higher education minister. He will work within the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, under Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary.
Willetts has been given the rank of Minister of State. He is not a Cabinet minister but the Cabinet Office says he will attend Cabinet meetings. Former science minister, Paul Drayson, also attended in this capacity, but held an additional place on Privy Council, which Willetts will not.
Willetts has previously said he would like to delay the Research Assessment Exercise by up to two years and look again at the importance attached by the Labour government to assessing the impact of research in the exercise.

Politicians on the Case

In response to the Campaign for Science and Engineering, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have expanded on their manifesto pledges for science and engineering.
The Conservatives are pledging to postpone the Research Excellence Framework (REF) by two years. In addition they stated that, if an appropriate system for measuring impact cannot be found, they will scrap it altogehter.
The Lib Dems intend to increase the number of postdoc places by reducing 'under-utilised' PhDs. They will also move Science more centre stage by moving the Government Office to the Cabinet Office. They also hope to tackle the crisis in UK physics, which is taken to mean they will deal with the budgetary problems over at STFC.
The full responses can be seen on the CaSE blog. The Labour response to CaSE is due shortly.

Tories Pledge to Delay the REF

David Willetts, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has been talking to the Times Higher, and revealed that the Conservatives would delay the REF 'to establish whether a sound and widely accepted measure of impact exists.' He continued, '[we] do not believe that the current proposals pass those two tests. Unless the review is able to establish a measure that does, we would not include impact in the REF.'
Not sure if it will win many votes among the wider electortate, but it looks like they're winning over the academic sector with this manifesto pledge. More details on the Times Higher site.

Mother Hubbard 'Cupboard Bare' Shock

“The cupboard is bare, there is no more money,”Adam Afriyie, the Conservative shadow science minister, told a conference in London last week. However, he sought to reassure delegates that the Tories would aim to safeguard a 'stable' science budget, if they were elected next year. He praised Labour's current science policies, and reassured the room that there would be 'no great revolution' if they got in. He promised to release more detailed plans before the probable election in May.

How Do We Solve a Problem Like Dave Willetts?

In an interesting commentary Research Fortnight (RF) examines the problem of David Willetts. Cameron wants smart, knowledgable people in his cabinet, but Willetts has no natural home in a structure that shadows Brown's government. The obvious thing to do would be to put him within a shadow BIS under Clarke, but that would demote him from the top table. So he's got the role of Education, albeit without a department to shadow. This would be rectified, says RF, after a Tory election win, when a Department of Education would be resurrected to give Willetts his own fiefdom.

With this in mind, RF make a brave attempt at second-guessing what Willett's priorities would be, and come up with a list that includeds social mobility, tuition fees and teaching. Which leaves the electorally unsexy area of research to bear the brunt of any budget cuts. As the article drily points out, 'for the research community it’s just a case of waiting for the axe to fall.'

However, it sees glimmers of hope: 'in the details lie potentially huge victories for researchers to win,' particularly in R&D tax breaks and (it hopes) Research Councils remaining relatively unscathed. 'For researchers, there is still a lot to play for,' it concludes.

The full article is available here; Kent is subscribed to ResearchResearch, but you will need to sign up to it to access the news.

Tories: Assessment of Impact 'Clunky'

David Willetts, the Conservative shadow education secretary, has queried the assessment of impact in the Research Excellence Framework (Ref), according to ResearchResearch.
At a fringe meeting at the Tory conference, Willetts criticised the "clunky" assessment of impact now required by the research councils. Its saving grace, he said, was that leaders of the research councils had told him that they didn't let it affect their grant-making decisions. And he went on to warn: "We don't want to import that into the Ref."
The statement sharpens the differences between Conservative and Labour over the future of the Ref. While Willetts has shifted the Conservatives away from the new approach outlined in the consultation published by HEFCE last month, vice-chancellors are saying that the impact agenda has come directly from Alistair Darling's Treasury.
Willetts also said at the meeting that he thought the biggest challenge for universities was in teaching, not research, and gave a warm endorsement to the importance of research in the social sciences and humanities.

Innovation, Innovation, Innovation

Shadow science minister Adam Afriyie has said that a future Conservative government would reverse Labour’s approach of centrally driving innovation through the universities and instead let innovation come through business by reducing regulatory and fiscal “obstacles”. Quoted in Nature, he said that “we want to create an environment such that science and research can easily be translated into innovation.”
His comments come shortly after Peter Mandelson's speech to the Labour Conference, at which he said that he wanted 'an innovation nation', and 'closer links between businesses and universities'.