Charity helps with a welcome boost for research
15 Jan 2000
A combination of public money and charitable contributions is set to give science and engineering research a £1.1 billion transfusion over the next three years. The new deal will fund new research projects and help university laboratories upgrade outdated equipment.
The first part of the boost comes from the government, which is increasing its annual science budget from £700 million to £1.67 billion a 15 per cent rise in real terms. The extra funding is all 'new' money, insists President of the Board of Trade Margaret Beckett, and has not been diverted from higher education funding or other DTI projects.
The remaining money comes from Britain's largest research charity, the Wellcome Trust, which is contributing £400 million. £100 million of this money is earmarked for a new synchrotron X-ray source; the remaining £300 million, matched by a similar sum from the DTI, will help build new university laboratories and refurbish existing ones.
The new money helps reverse several years of funding freezes or cuts in grants.
