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30.3 Leaders MH 28/3/06 2:07 PM Page 581 30.3 leaders MH 28/3/06 2:07 PM Page 581 www.nature.com/nature Vol 440 | Issue no. 7084 | 30 March 2006 Brown’s budget briefing A more cohesive biomedical research agency and simpler arrangements for measuring university performance feature in Britain's 2006 budget. n most years, in most countries, the only element in a finance new body has a similar arrangement to protect it from political inter- minister’s budget statement that grabs researchers’ immediate ference by ministers at either of the departments that will be respon- Iattention is the measly percentage increase that their funding sible. The government has yet to clarify how this will be achieved. agency has managed to prise out of government for the coming year. Researchers will also be glad to see the back of the Research But when Gordon Brown, the British chancellor of the exchequer, Assessment Exercise, a mechanism to measure university depart- stood up to deliver his budget statement on 23 March, he had some ments’ performance, whose expiry after a final outing in 2008 was interesting things to say to scientists. The statement proposed two confirmed in Brown’s budget statement. The exercise, which has reform initiatives that most researchers will welcome, if they are taken place every seven years or so since 1985, has helped the gov- implemented with care. ernment to determine the levels of fixed funding, on top of research Thanks in part to Brown’s conviction that research is key to eco- grants, for Britain’s universities. But it is vastly time-consuming for nomic growth, the Labour government has upped annual science overseers and overseen alike, and its usefulness as a management spending by about 70% since it came to power in 1997, to more than tool has been gradually waning. £2.5 billion (US$4.4 billion). There were no spending increases this time. But Brown, who is expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime Measure for measure minister at some point in the next two years, has clearly been giving Brown is proposing to replace the Research Assessment Exercise some thought to how British research could be strengthened. with a system that rewards departments on the basis of performance The most significant planned change is a shake-up of biomedical metrics. One metric highlighted in the budget statement, external research, to bring science and clinical trials under one roof. At research income, seems a reasonable basis for departmental fund- present, they are divided between the Medical Research Council ing, as this income correlates very well with the peer review that was (MRC), which supports biomedical science, and the National Health done in the assessment exercise. Service (NHS), which runs clinical trials and other healthcare But other types of research metrics — however attractive they research through its network of local health trusts. might look to those who make funding choices — should be “It is vital that the new Two into one handled with great care. Cita- biomedical-research body The NHS research and development budget is £750 million, around tion statistics, for example, are has an arrangement to £200 million more than that of the MRC, but NHS research has a far a notoriously unreliable and protect it from political lower profile, both scientifically and publicly. One reason is that the inconstant guide to research interference by ministers.” money is spent through the local trusts, which also provide day-to- quality. The top research agen- day healthcare. In this situation, it is perhaps inevitable that some cies in the United States have successfully resisted periodic drives by resources theoretically allocated to long-term research end up bureaucrats to use them to measure the worth of the science that diverted to immediate healthcare needs. they should be supporting. Brown aims to end this split. A merger of the NHS’s research with One way forward for the UK government would be to let reliable that of the MRC will create a new, as yet unnamed agency, which the metrics, such as total external research income, replace much of the Treasury says will receive “at least” £1 billion in funding each year. Research Assessment Exercise process, while retaining a slimmed- The agency will support all biomedical research, from basic studies down version of the subject panels that currently oversee each disci- to clinical trials, in the manner of the US National Institutes of pline. All disciplines could then base their evaluations on research Health. Senior researchers have welcomed the plan. Even if the income, but the subject panels could tweak the process to reflect the annual budget is slightly less than the total budget of the two cur- needs of their particular fields of study. For example, they might rent operations, it will still represent a significant increase in bio- choose to reward academics working on valuable long-term pro- medical research funding, as all of the money will now actually be jects, such as the collection of environmental or astronomical data spent on research. sets, the importance of which is not reflected in the metrics. The merger will be complex to implement, however. The budget The government will now consult interested parties on both the statement says that the new arrangement will be jointly administered biomedical and research-assessment proposals, each of which holds by the Department of Health, which runs the NHS, and the Depart- considerable potential. If the scientific community has a voice in ment of Trade and Industry (DTI), which currently oversees the how the proposals are implemented, that potential will be realized. MRC and Britain’s other research councils. But the research councils There might not be new money on the table in this particular bud- enjoy arms-length relationships with the DTI that prevent political get, but it contains ample opportunity to build a better environment meddling and protect their scientific reputations. It is vital that the for science in Britain. ■ 581 © 2006 Nature Publishing Group © 2006 Nature Publishing Group 30.3 News 593 MH 28/3/06 9:57 AM Page 593 NATURE|Vol 440|30 March 2006 NEWS BRIGHT FUTURE FOR SUN’S TWIN Homely stars make perfect targets for planet-finders. www.nature.com/news More whale strandings are linked to sonar Examinations of four whales found suspect that mid-frequency naval stranded along the Spanish coast in sonar caused the strandings. But January seem to confirm a 2003 Fernandez notes that the ships Nature report linking sonar to the that might have been responsible A. FERNANDEZ deaths of several beaked whales. have not been identified. In recent years, naval sonar Earlier this month, about 45 devices have been the suspected pilot whales died after stranding cause of an increasing number of on the western side of the island whale strandings worldwide. The of Sulawesi in Indonesia, following whales are thought to take evasive joint US and Indonesian naval action to avoid the noise, sometimes Air bubbles have been found in the tissues of dead whales discovered in Spain. exercises in the nearby Macassar diving and surfacing until they suffer Strait. The cause of the stranding decompression sickness and die. Nature 425, 575–576; 2003). embolic syndrome as that found is under investigation. In 2003, British and Spanish After a group of beaked whales in the 2003 study. Some US Navy officials, and researchers reported that went ashore in January, along “This is the first confirmation of oceanographers who use devices to Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius Spain’s Costa del Sol, the Spanish the 2003 report,” says veterinarian generate air bursts underwater for cavirostris), stranded off the Cetacean Society in Madrid called Paul Jepson of the Zoological seismic studies, have been accused Canary Islands the previous year, veterinarian Antonio Fernandez to Society of London, lead author of blocking efforts to uncover the had deadly gas-bubble lesions perform necropsies on four of the of that article. The new findings links between noise and whale called emboli in their livers. They animals. He and his colleagues from are expected to be published in strandings (see Nature 439, suggested these were caused by the University of Las Palmas de coming months. 376–377; 2006). ■ decompression (P. D. Jepson et al. Gran Canaria found the same Officials at the Cetacean Society Rex Dalton 593 © 2006 Nature Publishing Group © 2006 Nature Publishing Group 30.3 NF PielkeJW 27/3/06 3:37 PM Page 597 NATURE|Vol 440|30 March 2006 NEWS FEATURE THE SON ALSO RISES The two Roger oger Pielke Senior and Roger Pielke Junior share a contrasting with NASA’s estimate of $400 million1. Shortly name, a profession and a reputation. Both are after his numbers appeared in a 1993 article in The New Pielkes can be mathematics-trained history buffs. Both ski and York Times, Pielke Jr took a call from an official at NASA’s obstructionist RI play golf as part of their active Colorado lifestyles. Johnson Space Center, who asked him to retract his con- And both are prominent scholars in the highly polarized clusions about the cost. He said he gladly would, if the offi- pains in the field of climate science, where their name can provoke cial could only pinpoint what exactly was wrong. The neck, say their much eye-rolling. person never called back. The elder Pielke, 59, is professor of climatology at Col- The incident, says Byerly, demonstrates the younger colleagues. orado State University and the state’s official climatologist. Pielke’s coolness under fire. “He knows right where the So why is The younger Pielke, 37, is an expert in science policy at the jugular is,” says Byerly.
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