All change again for science as UK government creates a new department

The UK government has axed the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) after less than two years, shifting responsibility for the science budget to a new Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. This brings together DIUS with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

The government said the new department will combine BERR’s responsibilities for shaping the enterprise environment, analysing the strengths and needs of the various parts of British industry, building strategies for industrial strength and expertise in better regulation with DIUS’s remit of overseeing the universities, expanding access to higher education, investing in science and shaping skills policy and innovation through bodies such as the Technology Strategy Board.

The new department embodies the government’s approach to promoting competitiveness and productivity as set out in ‘New Industries, New Jobs’, a paper published in April 2009.

Academics are concerned that moving the science budget to what is a blatantly business-focussed department will put basic research at risk. Beth Taylor, director of communications at the Institute of Physics, said, “It’s crucial that money for science remains ring-fenced and, [and the move to a] department focused on business and enterprise, does not result in additional pressure on the research councils to deliver more short-term mission-based research.”

This comment was echoed by Nick Dusic of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, who said the government needs to clearly signal that investment in science and higher education will not be redirected to support industrial priorities. “The department has a wide remit so it is more critical than ever that the science budget is ring-fenced so that it is protected from spending problems in other areas.”

The position of science will be protected in the new department, said its head Peter Mandelson, former EU Trade Commissioner, in a speech at the 100th Birthday celebrations of the Science Museum in London on Tuesday. He argued that the creation of a new department for Business, Innovation and Skills puts science at the centre of the government’s economic recovery plans, saying, “The future competitiveness of this country depends on the excellence of its science.”

Mandelson added, “Our ability to maintain and develop our strong science base through both applied and a substantial element of fundamental curiosity-driven research, will be essential to our long-term economic success.”