Research in department limbo as new government forms

Vince Cable, the former Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor, has been named as business, innovation and skills secretary in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition formed on 12 May. However it remains unclear whether science and higher education will remain under the business banner in the new administration.

Prime minister David Cameron also confirmed Conservative MP and former shadow schools secretary Michael Gove as education secretary. This is a change from the previous government’s portfolio of children, schools and families, which suggests higher education could be moved out of BIS to the education department.

At the time of going to press, no science minister has been announced.* The BBC reports that ministerial positions will likely be announced tomorrow.

Whether a science minister would remain at the cabinet level is the critical issue for science, Hilary Leevers, assistant director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, told Research Fortnight. “We’re really hoping that the science minister will have a place at cabinet,” says Leevers. “Because science is so important across government and it affects every department and having a science minister in cabinet, as we did with Paul Drayson, has proved to be very beneficial.”

Under the coalition agreement, the Liberal Democrats will have five cabinet members, including Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister, out of 20 positions across government. Media reports say Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne will get the job of secretary of state for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

A coalition agreement, released today, laid out how the parties will work together. Under the agreement Liberal Democrats would be able to abstain over the government response to the Browne review of higher education funding and fees.

Leevers adds that CaSE is eager to see agreement on science and engineering policies between the two parties. “We’ve certainly identified lots of areas in which the parties agree, these include being positive on the future of science funding, reviewing the way in which impact is used to allocate that funding, and introducing new measures to get more qualified science teachers into the classrooms, as well as making sure all children can study separate biology, physics and chemistry.”

Funding for science will be an important issue, she adds. The Liberal Democrats made a commitment to not cut science in the first year, she says, while Cameron said in the last leaders’ debate that investing in the science base was essential in rebuilding the manufacturing base.

University Alliance, which represents smaller universities, said it hoped smaller institutions wouldn’t suffer under research funding pressures facing the new government. “We are facing difficult economic times and there will inevitably be pressures on public funding under a Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition government,” said director, Libby Aston. “That is why, more than ever, it is critical to maintain a consistent, evidence-based approach to selectively funding research based on excellence alone,” she said in a statement.

The rest of the cabinet includes George Osborne as chancellor of the exchequer, Liam Fox as the new defence secretary and Thersa May as home secretary. Andrew Lansley is health secretary while former shadow business secretary Ken Clarke becomes justice secretary. Liberal Democrats David Laws and Danny Alexander have been confirmed as chief secretary to the Treasury and Scottish secretary respectively.

*UPDATE: Conservative MP David WIlletts has been named minister for science and universities, and will attend cabinet. It appears that he will be in BIS, working under Vince Cable.

As the dust settles

Overall, the tone of the reaction today - emphasised off the record - is that most readers have found the review worthy but dull. I seem to find it more interesting than most (see Sainsbury's new ideology), but am also more sceptical about the likelihood of the important bits being implemented.

I started the day wondering how it would compare with Ian Taylor's task force report for the Conservatives. The answer is, it's a dead heat: they've both come up with a headline promising £1bn for their preferred hi-tech funding agency, the Technology Strategy Board in Labour's case and the Innovative Products Agency in Taylor's.

Universities I think will be most directly interested in the HEIF language. We've known for a long time that a switch from competition to formula was coming, but now we have a political steer on the kind of formula to expect.

The review invents a new category of institution, the "business-facing university". No vice-chancellor these days is going to accept that theirs is anything but a BFU, and Universities UK has politely pointed this out already. But the language is still significant. Basically, I think it means that the cap limiting how much the Russell Group can get will remain, ensuring that smaller but increasingly respected places such as Hertfordshire, De Montfort and Manchester Met will get strong support. HEIF will remain a broad church with around 75 per cent of institutions getting significant funding. My bet is that the Comprehensive Spending Review on Tuesday will push HEIF's budget to around £150m by year three.

I'm extremely dubious about the schools agenda, and find it depressing to see the BBC and other media going with the flakiest part of the whole thing. Action's needed no doubt, but I don't think the government has the teachers or schools to do it. I'd like to see a survey of timetables in one or two inner city areas this year to see how many actually are offering the triple science option ministers have promised to any of their pupils.

I hope you've found Day 1 of our blog interesting. Check back next week for the big spending decisions, and reports from Laura Hood at the big Lisbon conference on the European Research Area. Meanwhile, why not add your own thoughts on the whole thing using the Comment option below?