• Question: Does the Government give money to fund your research? If they don't do you think they should?

    Asked by cellman to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Yes, it does, cellman.
      Because our lab (and many science labs) is part of a university, we get money from the Higher Education Authority and other bodies.
      Different labs and people who run them get their money from a variety of sources; the Research Councils (which also get money from the government), charities and other places.

      I think the government definitely needs to fund science; it’s very important and contributes so much to our economy. It’s difficult to pin down the actual benefits of science because they are so huge; for example, at CERN (the research institute in Switzerland where the large hadron collider is) they generated data that led to the formation of the internet! How do you measure the value of that?!

      So definitely – keep an eye out for which politicians are pro-science, and give them your vote when you can! 🙂

    • Photo: Emma Pilgrim

      Emma Pilgrim answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi
      Yes the government does fund my research but indirectly. As a research institute we get given a set amount of money to work on key areas of research by our research council. Our research council (BBSRC) biotechnology and biological sciences research council) gets given money by the government adn the research council has to decide what areas of research to prioritse in e.g. food security which is a horrible phrase but essentially the aim os to ensure that Britain has a stable supply of nutritious food.

      The money from our research council isn’t enough to keep us going though so we have to apply for money, from other government funded resources e.g. other research councils or the department for the environment, fisheries and rural affairs (defra).

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      The Government through their research funding body (the MRC-medical research council) offered to fund my work but the Wellcome Trust (a private charitable organisation) that funded this project (Imascientist) made me a better offer. As you can see from how swanky this site is the Wellcome Trust are very generous. It’s going to be very difficult to get funding over the next few years because of the terrible financial position.

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi cellman,

      Yes they absolutely should fund my research!!

      Actually, the government probably will fund my research when I get my act together and start submitting grant proposals (those are two dirty words for scientists by the way – a necessary evil!). But I’ve only been in my current job for a few weeks, so haven’t got this sorted out yet!

Comments