{"id":2586,"date":"2013-06-06T20:32:48","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T19:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2013-06-07T08:41:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T07:41:33","slug":"in-which-we-reach-the-brink-chemists-add-their-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2013\/06\/06\/in-which-we-reach-the-brink-chemists-add-their-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"In which we reach the brink – chemists add their voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

As 26 June draws nigh, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the outcome of the UK Treasury’s decision on the 2015-2016 budget, which will decide how much public spending will be allocated to the science budget. Science is Vital has been hard at work trying to sway hearts and minds with our latest campaign<\/a> – for those of you who were snoozing in the back, you can catch up by reading a piece Richard<\/a>, Stephen<\/a> and I wrote back in March that sums it all up in the Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Royal Society of Chemistry <\/a>has been pushing in the same direction, as intrepidly described by Matthew Brown<\/a> a few weeks ago. Following on from that post, the RSC has just today released the full briefing, which is available for download<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Is<\/a>

Is it just me or are those formulae reflected in the safety glasses incredibly sexy?<\/p><\/div>\n

Take a look – it’s a good read. They call for 0.7% of GDP to be spent on science by 2020. Science is Vital has called for an eventual target of 0.8% (the G8 average) – which if the RSC’s call is heeded at a steady, incremental rate, would be achieved by 2025.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our petition<\/a> remains open for signatures, and you have until Friday to make your voice heard on our UK scientist funding survey<\/a>, which will go into a report for Government that we at Science is Vital are currently scrambling to finish off. Last but not least, it’s not to late to write to your MP<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Working together, we really can make a difference.<\/p>\n

Note added 7 June 2013 07:23:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Chancellor George Osborne dropped hints<\/a> that science would be “protected” in the next spending review, although he didn’t go into details. While this is encouraging, the Government has always referred to the 2010 ring-fenced cash freeze as a protection, so I’m not certain this news is any different from what we were expecting based on earlier insider information. I hope to be proved wrong on the 26th, though!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 26 June draws nigh, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the outcome of the UK Treasury’s decision on the 2015-2016 budget, which will decide how much public spending will be allocated to the science budget. Science is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-funding","category-science-is-vital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}