Memorandum 31
Submission from Herbert Carlson, Chief
Scientist Emeritus, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
This is a short note to register my considered
judgement that the UK has for decades played a leading role in
the International ground based Space Sciences community, and that
the direction I'm led to understand current funding is going for
this field of science in the UK comes as a shock, despite having
followed the increasingly distressing news that has emerged over
the past year. Given the growing importance of that field as judged
by leading scientists and funding agencies in so many other nations,
I had been lulled into a false sense of security that the threat
would be resolved with a favorable outcome.
Given the intensity of surprise and alarm for
this field, which I anticipate to be felt by many abroad, if the
presently considered budget cuts start to become implemented,
this note is to ask what might colleagues and funding agencies
in other nations say, or to whom might they write, to urge a meaningful
reconsideration by the UK Research Councils, of the value of the
research field now under threat, and a reconsideration of how
it fits into the overall UK national science picture.
February 2008
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