STFC Budget 2009/10

STFC has confirmed its 2009-10 science and technology programme following consultation with our advisory bodies.

The £491m programme will deliver significant scientific, economic, societal and international benefits for the UK. Current achievements in the programme include the first research users of ISIS Second Target Station, and the successful launch of Herschel Planck. Future highlights include the first collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the commissioning of the VISTA telescope at ESO’s VLT facility in Chile and operations commencing at T2K [Next Generation Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment].

STFC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Keith Mason, said: “The programme maintains funding for standard and rolling grants at the level previously forecast for 2009-10.”

“However, the impact of the international financial situation has required us to adjust our programme by closely scrutinising costs and managing the programme within our budget allocation. We have done so after consultation with our scientific advisory bodies.”

The 2009-10 programme includes some rephasing of funding for a small number of programmes, reduced allocation to Diamond Light Source, and reductions in facility operations at ISIS and the Central Laser Facility.

Professor Mason added,” This approach has enabled us to preserve a lot more in the overall programme”.

The programme also includes reductions or earlier withdrawals of support for two of the lower ranked projects in the 2008 Programmatic Review.

The programme maintains options for the highest priority programmes in the future, and avoids making major strategic decisions in advance of consultation and inputs from the advisory panels and from the review of ground-based astronomy facilities which are now underway.

Professor Mason said: “We have finalised the budget for this year, but are very aware of the likely impact of the current economic environment on public sector finances in the medium term.”

“We are therefore engaged in a wide ranging and multifaceted consultation project around our longer-term strategy. Of necessity this will involve asking tough questions about the future direction of our science and technology programme.”

Notes for editors

STFC received a near cash allocation of £491M for 2009-10 made up of the baseline allocation from the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) with the addition of a previously agreed ‘loan’ (a reprofiling of our allocation within the CSR) of £20M and compensation for exchange rate movements. The exchange of the pound against the Euro, Swiss Franc and other currencies varies across the year, and the actual impact will only be known as international payments become due. DBIS are providing compensation for the effects of currency fluctuation above a £3M cap. This figure does not include the capital budget, which is in addition to the £490.7M.

STFC is also delivering significant internal savings to re-invest into the science programme, including reductions in staffing numbers achieved through restrictions on recruitment, restrictions on travel and external consultancies.

STFC will also conduct reviews over coming months of the five major domestic and international neutron and light source facilities it funds to confirm the international excellence of science undertaken, and to ensure maximum cost effectiveness of these investments for UK science.

Reduced support:

• The Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU) and the Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at Edinburgh.

Rephased Funding:

• Funding for the Nuclear Physics projects Nustar and SPIDER (generic particle physics detector R&D), which were scheduled to start in April 2009 will be deferred until April 2010. Although PANDA has started some rephasing of funding may occur. However, bridging funds are being made available to Nustar and SPIDER to assist during this transition phase.



• Funding for the next phase of R&D for the neutrino experiment SuperNEMO will be dependent on a successful outcome from the current peer review process.



• Spending on MoonLITE will be deferred until April 2010.



• Spending on the 10PW upgrade of the VULCAN high-power laser at RAL will be deferred by at least a year.



• Savings through existing programme delays.



• A number of other projects have already experienced some slippage for reasons specific to the project in question. In these cases savings can be secured in 2009/10 with little or no additional impact on the project. These projects include the LHC detector upgrades, the Gateway Centres at Harwell and Daresbury, High Performance Computing operational cost provision, the Aurora planetary exploration programme, and the Solar Orbiter projects.

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