Very happy to start at @IPPP_Durham as an Assistant Professor in Particle Physics Phenomenology on August 1st! Looking forward to work with @martinmbauer, @spannowsky and all the other fine people at IPPP!
Excellent summary of the cuts to grant funding that the PPAN community is now facing at the @ioppublishing.bsky.social APP and HEPP meeting, and how we should respond to it as a community. 🧪🔭
#UKRI#PPAN#ScienceFunding#APPHEPP26
This is pure 1984: Lord Vallance promises that there will be no reduction in UK particle theory postdoc numbers from ~20 per year. The actual number awarded in the last round in 2022 was 58.
https://t.co/jzKazZRK5k
We’ve written to @SciTechgovuk minster Lord Vallance and @UKRI_News, pressing for urgent clarification on science research funding cuts.
Find out more: https://t.co/BA7WsNttWt
“PPAN trained scientists have enabled us to create industry leading AI technology.” 🧪🔭🤖
— Dr David Evans, Head of Data Engineering @FreeAgent
Developments in #UKRI funding are being watched “with alarm.”
👉 https://t.co/sCmQlUUbsB
#PPAN#AI#ScienceFunding
"It may be that the government has decided that our field is not strategically important, so heavy cuts are appropriate... they should do so with their eyes wide open to the potential implications in the future for the UK workforce"
Malcolm Fairbairn
https://t.co/rsbuhaWMVp
📢Postdoctoral support in UK theoretical particle physics has dropped from 58.33 to 19.5 PDRA years per year — a ~67% reduction.
These positions are central to research, training, and the skills pipeline into industry.
The impact will extend well beyond academia.
#UKRI
I asked the Science Minister @CommonsSITC how he would address the financial mismanagement at @STFC_matters resulting in consistent overspends and cuts.
He denied it was mismanagement but confirmed the ambition should be that predicted expenditure meets actual expenditure.
For @SciTechgovuk Lord Vallance says: “"It is not right to portray this as a massive cut. It's not, it’s about managing a budget responsibly". He added that the UK was and would continue to be the second biggest funder experiments @CERN.
https://t.co/SaXaO26RKl
Minutes of @STFC_Matters record the Council's head of strategy describing "a major shift of funding from curiosity-driven research to priority areas and targeted programmes". @UKRI say this was a “misstatement” https://t.co/SaXaO26RKl
‘We need to sort this problem out’: Liz Kendall tells MPs on STFC cuts
Science secretary assures House of Commons “we strongly back curiosity-led research”, despite impending cuts
https://t.co/tQYGint0EE
UK particle physics and astronomy are facing “catastrophic” cuts while science spending received a record increase. Documents seen by @BBCNews suggest money has been diverted away to government research areas. https://t.co/SaXaO26RKl
Excellent writeup of the @UKRI_News debacle by @BBCPallab . "I do not understand how we ended up with a 30% cut in the particle physics and astronomy budget unless at some point there must have been a choice to reduce that aspect of the budget." https://t.co/rULZQwJVJ0
If you're interested in how often the ground state neutral charmed meson decays to two-body kaon/pion final states look here! Each new average will have a permanent DOI so that you can cite the version you use in your next great physics paper. Cool, huh?
https://t.co/VMfms7OX9B
Tomorrow at 1.30pm we're questioning Science Minister, Lord Patrick Vallance at @SciTechgovuk and @SeemaMalhotra1, Minister at the @FCDOGovUK in our final session of our inquiry examining the UK's science diplomacy capabilities.
Read more: https://t.co/pOnp1rSbvM