The British scientific community is calling on new Prime Minister Liz Truss to appoint a science minister. The science minister, who has been vacant for nearly three months, is calling on him to recommit to the previous government’s policy of making Britain a “scientific superpower”. The plea comes amid fears that her economic policies, which have deprioritized research by the Truss government and tumbled the British pound to record lows, will hurt British scientists. .

Martin Smith, head of the policy lab at Wellcome, a biomedical research funder in London, said: “That was a very strong part [previous Prime Minister] We saw no evidence of Boris Johnson’s rhetoric and that far from the new administration. ”

A Guide to Plan B: The UK’s Ambiguous Strategy for Post-Brexit Science Funding

Conservatives appointed Truss in early September after Johnson resigned in July. I have already made some decisions. Last week, she dissolved the National Science and Technology Council, a parliamentary committee set up by Johnson in 2021, aimed at making strategic decisions about the country’s research efforts. The post of science minister remains vacant, months after Freeman resigned in July to force Johnson’s resignation.

This week, Julia King, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, the upper house of the UK Parliament, wrote to Truss urging him to appoint a science minister and reconsider dissolving the council. “If you deliver it [science superpower] We really need coordination between government departments to realize our vision,” says King.

endless uncertainty

The government’s lack of clear direction on science has ignited existing uncertainties for British scientists. After six years of contentious negotiations over Brexit, the EU and UK governments are still in agreement on whether the UK will remain part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research programme. not reached.

British scientists fear being shut out of €100bn EU research program

The seven-year plan will pay around €100 billion in research funding, making previous versions of the program an important source of funding for British scientists. But it seems increasingly likely that British researchers will lose access to this source of funding as officials remain in a stalemate over the political details of Brexit. Over 100 UK-based researchers who received funding from the prestigious European Research Council lost their grants because they did not choose to move to Europe as a condition of the funding. The UK government says it has a back-up funding plan for researchers called Plan B, but details are unknown.

James Wilsdon, who studies research policy at the University of Sheffield, said: “Prolonged uncertainty is between UK researchers and those in the rest of the EU. It’s just pouring acid on the coalition that exists,” he said. , England.

currency collapse

So far, the new government has shown no sign of changing the previous administration’s overall strategy on research funding. Last year, the Johnson government pledged to increase the country’s research and development (R&D) budget to £20bn (US$22bn) annually by 2024-25, with a target of spending his 2.4% of gross domestic product on R&D in 2027. promised to increase At the time, it had the largest R&D budget in UK history, and UK research spending still lags behind countries such as the US and Germany.

But even if the Truss administration maintains this allocation of funds, economic conditions and a weaker sterling could dilute its value. Last week, the new Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarten announced a shift in fiscal policy aimed at boosting economic growth. But policies to help households with rising energy costs and offer tax breaks for the wealthiest have sparked the ire of national and international economists and sent the pound plummeting to its lowest level in decades.

The currency turmoil comes against the backdrop of rising energy prices linked to the war in Ukraine and a wider cost of living crisis as inflation and interest rates soar. Researchers fear that these factors will substantially erode research budgets and squeeze the day-to-day operating budgets of laboratories.

“This is a serious problem for science,” says Wilsdon. “Many instruments are imported internationally, are in a global market that is very obvious to people, and have relatively fixed overhead costs in terms of running labs and facilities.”

a lot of pressure

But some researchers say it’s too early to tell how the Truss administration will value science. Research is one of the many priorities that call attention to the truss among pressing issues such as economy, energy and social policy. Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society of London, said, “With all the commotion and new announcements in the tax and other spaces, little attention was paid to anything related to science.” and other areas, it’s understandable, but it’s nice to have some reassurance that the commitment is still there.”

Sarah Mayne, executive director of London research advocacy group Campaign for Science and Engineering, agrees that the scientific community needs certainty and should stick to the previous government’s agenda. “The new administration is clearly pursuing disruptive change,” Maine says. When it comes to studies, she says, “They should really stay on the course they’re set.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which oversees the ministry of science, did not respond to a request for comment, and Patrick Vallance, director of the Government Office of Science, declined to comment. Nature‘s interview request.