Dear all This is mostly relevant for those of you in the UK, so I apologise for the off tpopic nature of the email. However, I think this is an important issue for the CCP4 community as a whole as well, since UK funding changes will affect how CCP4 is funded and the continued support we all get.
As you may have heard, Science is Vital, the grassroots group that helped stave off cuts to research funding in 2010 (http://scienceisvital.org.uk/science-is-vital-old/), has a new campaign asking the UK government to modestly increase science funding in the next budget round for 2015-16 (decisions about which will be announced in June). There are strong rumours that another cash freeze is the most likely result, which obviously would continue a trend of decline that's already starting to bite. We have launched a petition, which can be read and signed here: http://scienceisvital.org.uk/2013/03/21/petition-increase-governmental-spend-on-rd-to-0-8-gdp/ We urge you to sign today. In the next few months, the Government will make key decisions about how to dispense funds for the next few years, and together we must remind them that science is vital for the UK. Also, we are collecting data on the effects of the current cash freeze in a survey in order to prepare a report that should prove useful for persuading the Government: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1195150/Survey-on-effects-of-Science-Funding-Cash-Freeze So, if you are or have been in the recent past a UK-based researcher, please take the survey and let us know the effects you have experienced. For both these initiatives, we’d also appreciate it if you could spread the word to colleagues via departmental mailing lists, as well as family and friends. Remember, you don’t have to be a scientist to think science is vital, so you can ask everyone! Thanks for your support. Best wishes Paula Member of the Science is Vital Executive Committee =================================== Dr Paula S. Salgado Lecturer in Macromolecular Crystallography Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences Faculty of Medical Sciences 3rd Floor Cookson Building Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK Tel: +44 (0)191 222 7369 Fax: +44 (0)191 222 7424 Email: paula.salg...@ncl.ac.uk
