Science minister “keenly aware” of pressure on university finances

Chris McDonald is “keenly aware of the pressure on university finances and how this was impacting research,” British Academy president Hetan Shah has said, following a meeting between the national academy and the new science minister.

In a post on social media site Bluesky, Shah reports that the minister “proactively” raised the issue of higher education financial sustainability. He added that McDonald indicated his strong support for all R&D disciplines and desire to “get to know” the social science, humanities and arts.

This followed controversy at the Universities UK conference last week when the minister suggested that his role was to make the case for science while the culture department would advocate for the arts.

That speech also saw McDonald’s emphatic endorsement of longer and larger grants as a way to reduce research bureaucracy. The British Academy is said to have highlighted the impact of such a direction of travel in some disciplines:

“We raised that his interest in bigger and longer grants wasn't necessarily something that would work in our own disciplines where a mix was important including smaller grants. He seemed open to this feedback.”