Nurse goes into battle for science ahead of budget

Science must be placed “at the heart of a national industrial strategy”, the president of the Royal Society has said.

Writing in a column in The Observer on 2 March, Paul Nurse called for “a step change in investment” from the government. Nurse expressed concerns over the “threat” that budgets outside the science and research ring-fence will be added to the ring fence, a procedure nicknamed ‘tucking under’.

“This threat appeared to be more than rumour as it was based on a leaked document from inside BIS that contained a recommendation to the Treasury that a ‘black hole’ in the budget be partially plugged by adding a range of additional projects to the science budget without any money to support them,” he wrote. “That would technically not break the ring fence but would burst it from the inside out.”