Budget: Science package welcome but we need new long-term approach to UK science funding

Responding to George Osborne's Budget speech today, Professor Lesley Yellowlees CBE, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: 

"The Chancellor's announcement of £222 million for doctoral training centres, a new Turing Institute and to commercially exploit scientific advances is welcome. Mr Osborne rightly recognises that a strong science base is essential for continued economic growth. 

"But despite this announcement and last week's commitment to fund scientific infrastructure projects, the UK continues to lag behind the international competition when it comes to government investment in science. 

"More than individual funding for 'announceable' projects we need a long-term funding pipeline and a strategy for investment in research to instil confidence in the security of our research ecosystem.

"Britain's world-leading science creates growth and jobs and will help to underpin the resilient economy we all want to see. I look forward to the publication of the government's science and innovation strategy in the Autumn as a first step to articulating a new approach to sustainable, long-term funding for UK science."