Ask not what UKRI can do for you – ask what you can do for UKRI

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK research funding body, has announced a complete shake up of their funding system. Under this system, funding will be divided between ‘buckets’: one for curiosity-driven research, one for government strategic priorities – including quantum computing and AI – and one to support innovative companies. The headline consequence of all this is that my field, particle physics, along with astronomy and nuclear physics (collectively PPAN) are losing out. Big time. We will face up to 30% funding cuts, which, as Prof Jon Butterworth of University College London put it, would be “existentially threatening” to the fields; our international reputation will plummet, UK involvement in large international projects will dwindle , and researchers will be forced to leave to find work elsewhere. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of how this has happened– there are already a number of articles detailing this . But in times like this, we are forced to evaluate the value of our research. Why should we fund curiosity-driven research, such as my own in particle physics?

Currently, the leading argument is that curiosity-driven research often goes on to drive humanity’s most impactful innovations. UKRI wouldn’t be able to fund quantum computing at all if physicists hadn’t developed quantum mechanics in the early 20^th century – a field that was born entirely from curiosity. However, there’s another reason that UK curiosity-driven research is so valuable. 

The UK is a divided nation. One camp believes we are at risk of losing our culture, and places immigrants firmly as the culprits. The other dismisses this as a moral panic – UK culture is safe and sound, or perhaps we never had any culture to begin with. Is it possible that the truth lies somewhere in between the two? The UK has a strong culture; we are trendsetters in modern music, pioneers in literature, and have produced some of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. But look around you: live music venues are closing, it costs a small fortune to go to the theatre, and pubs are barely getting by with rising utility costs. The things that we once had in common, the places where we could all meet, the people we celebrated together are disappearing. And I strongly believe this is due to funding cuts. 

It’s easy to believe as physicists that we live in our own bubble. We do our work, share it with other experts, and slowly but surely advance a field that maybe, in a hundred years or so, will improve the lives of the people around us. But until then, those same people don’t care what we do. I disagree. Ask any person on the street to name five British scientists. Chances are they will say Isaac Newton or Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox or perhaps even Peter Higgs. These are all people who would firmly sit in bucket 1; they are (or were) curiosity-driven researchers. 

It goes without saying that names like these inspire young Brits to study physics at university. It was Cox’s documentaries, Hawking’s books and the news of Higgs’ Nobel Prize that really excited me in my teen years. But I also think these people – and the UK’s status as a leader in curiosity-driven research – give British people a piece of shared culture that we can all be proud of. 

The Discovery of the Higgs boson – and the subsequent Nobel Prize awarded to Newcastle-born Peter Higgs – was a huge moment for the UK. As well as inspiring a generation of scientists, it brought people together for a moment. It gave British people something to celebrate together. But with PPAN’s funding being gutted, it’s difficult to see how we will remain at the forefront of the field. The UK will attract less talent, make fewer discoveries, and being pioneers of fundamental physics will become a tale of the past. We will have one less thing to talk about with our neighbours, one less thing we can be collectively proud of. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. As UKRI have parroted themselves, the cuts are not yet set in stone. Something can still be done to save UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics. People like Dr Simon Williams, who started an open letter to MPs, have jumped into action. And with increasing national news coverage and a public hearing with the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee, it feels like someone is listening. This could be the turning point in the UK’s history of curiosity-driven research. Which way it will go? Only time will tell.