Science and Technology Facilities Council will also reduce project spending, despite £135m of fresh money

UK Research and Innovation has confirmed cuts at major domestic science facilities over the next four years, despite providing £135 million in extra cash to “avoid” harsher cutbacks.

Speaking to journalists on 9 July, UKRI chief executive Ian Chapman said “the importance of acting now and being decisive is really critical to avoid more serious disruption later”. The Science and Technology Facilities Council has undergone a six-month prioritisation exercise to determine how to make savings required due to cost forecasts outrunning its budget.

The budget for the UK’s multidisciplinary science facilities supported by STFC will be cut by 15 per cent over four years, with impacts on lasers and beamlines. STFC funds facilities including Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (pictured) and the Central Laser Facility, all of which will remain operational but with efficiency savings to “prioritise critical capability”. While avoiding imminent closure, UKRI said the facilities must deliver savings and generate additional income.

“We have to realise some cost savings, but we also have to realise some income generation, and one way that we can generate income is through external users of our multidisciplinary facilities,” Chapman said.

The council will aim to save £28m a year on operational costs for the facilities and reduce running time at ISIS. STFC will seek alternative funding for the muon beamlines at ISIS and some elements of the Central Laser Facility and will close these areas if unsuccessful.

There are also cuts to national laboratories supported by STFC, including reducing the operational budget by 40 per cent at Boulby Underground Mine and reducing spending on particle accelerators at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire. The Clara facility, one of the world’s most advanced medium-energy electron beam facilities, will be mothballed.

UKRI leaders declined to put a figure on how many overall job losses were likely, but Chapman said “we are expecting some headcount reductions, and it will probably be in the hundreds”.

PPAN projects

UKRI has said discovery-led research in particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics is protected. Nonetheless, the budget for its particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics programme will drop by 2.7 per cent over four years.

Under the PPAN programme, STFC will “reduce support to a number of national and international projects, projects, the detail of which will be announced following engagement with the impacted projects”. There are almost 50 PPAN projects including experiments at the international particle accelerator Cern and the e-Merlin array of seven radio telescopes, including the famous Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Earlier this week, RPN reported that sources close to STFC said funding for experiments at Cern and e-Merlin would fall. UKRI leaders declined to confirm which projects will see their funding reduced, but STFC executive chair Michele Dougherty said that there is a “10 per cent decrease of the PPAN project work”.

STFC will also reduce funding for both its Particle Physics department and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre by 20 per cent, both of which come under the PPAN programme.

Protections and cash injection

More positively, STFC confirmed it will “protect post-doctoral researchers within PPAN grants at the financial year 2025 to 2026 level” including inflationary increases, and “support continued investment in PhD studentships and fellowships”.

In addition, all of STFC’s international subscriptions, including with Cern, will be maintained despite costs rising by 19 per cent over the next four years.

To support STFC in making these changes, UKRI is supporting the council with £135m of “transitional money” to enable the council to be on budget by 2029-30. “If we did not provide the additional money from the rest of UKRI, we would have to take a more draconian approach today and close a multidisciplinary facility,” Chapman said.

Since January, the funder has said that it needs to make cost-savings of £162m by 2029-30, and Chapman clarified that this is the forecast cost overrun in that year alone, so the total savings required across the four year spending review will be significantly higher. RPN has asked UKRI for further details.

UKRI said it will “take actions such as using in-year underspends or deferring activity from across its portfolio to support STFC’s costs and avoid making sharp reductions now” and that the measures being taken will ensure that STFC “will retain key priorities across PPAN, the three multidisciplinary facilities, and its national laboratories, delivering for government priorities and for industry”.

Change in culture

The blame for STFC’s costs outrunning its budget allocation have been placed on “extremely ambitious” decisions on how many new projects the council could fund in previous years, and rising costs, particularly for access to international infrastructures.

Dougherty said that getting the council within budget will “will need a culture change within STFC and UKRI” and that the council would “strengthen partnerships that we have with commercial users and we are going to increase income from our world-leading facilities and the expertise and the innovation programs that we have”.

“For us to be able to achieve these plans, we really have to rethink the way that we work with our partners and we’re going to need to reset some of the relationships that we have,” she added.