Speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing in London on Tuesday, Ian Chapman, a physicist who leads UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), said that the high quality of the United Kingdom's research and innovation base is its only competitive advantage over rival nations. UKRI is the United Kingdom's national funding agency for research and innovation, and has distributed about '9 billion (US$12 billion) of public money in the current financial year. Chapman said that UKRI needs major reform to convert expertise into ideas and companies that could create jobs and money for the UK economy. 'It is latent at the moment. I think it's under-exploited.' However, media reports suggest that the reforms could drain university science of funds and put the nation's participation in major international science projects in jeopardy, and have provoked concern and anxiety among researchers. 'This will hurt the UK research community very badly,' says Lucien Heurtier, a postdoctoral researcher in...
learn more
