IUSS vs STFC

Today’s obligatory pointer to the latest on the ongoing UK physics-funding crisis: the “Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills” committee has released a pretty scathing report, mostly slamming STFC’s handling of the situation (and refuting most of its arguments for how it got us into this mess to begin with). The BBC’s Today show had interviews confirming these points with Committee Chair Phil Willis MP and Brian Cox.

At this point, the best we could hope for in the short term would be a small amount of emergency funding to close some of the most gaping holes (and as a measure of good faith) and a major change in the STFC management structure. So far, they’ve said they want to “strengthen the management team”, “consult more widely”, and “improve… communication”. We’ll see.

As usual, Paul Crowther collects all the relevant information and news, and Andy Lawrence has good commentary.