Budget 2009-10

The Council of STFC has considered and endorsed a plan to achieve a balanced budget in 2009-10. Council agreed the budget of £491 million was a welcome and significant investment by Government in our science and technology, especially given the tough economic climate and the severe restrictions being imposed elsewhere in the public sector. The STFC’s budget includes additional funding to compensate the Council for the effect of international exchange rate movements on large international subscriptions.

The allocation will enable STFC to continue to deliver a major science and technology programme. Council specifically noted the budget would avoid the need for any further across-the-board reductions in standard and rolling grants for 2009-10.

Council acknowledged that the impact of the global downturn would, nonetheless, require STFC to adjust its programme in 2009-10, and that there was also a need to urgently examine the balance of its programme from 2010-11 onward in light of the national Budget's forecasts of medium-term UK government expenditure.

Council, therefore, agreed that the 2009-10 programme should include targeted programme slippages and delays, reductions in facility operations, and reductions in support for a small proportion of STFC’s specific projects. STFC is committed to deliver significant internal savings to re-invest into the science programme.

Management has already identified a range of internal savings, including reductions in staffing numbers achieved through restrictions on recruitment, and restrictions on travel, and will continue to examine options for additional savings.

STFC will also conduct reviews over coming months of the five major domestic and international neutron and light source facilities it funds^*, to confirm the international excellence of science undertaken, and to ensure maximum cost effectiveness of these investments for UK science.

Management has commenced discussions with Science Board, PPAN and PALS on the programme for this year, and will continue these over coming weeks. Further information will be provided following discussions with Science Board about the consultation process on the longer-term balance of the programme.

^* - The review will cover the Diamond Light Source, ISIS neutron source and Central Laser Facility, all located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, and the European Synchrotron Research Facility and the Institut Laue-Langevin, both at Grenoble, France.