After years studying taxpayer-funded grants, I strongly believe any future Right-wing (or common sense) government would do best to cut two bodies first: the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). These two research councils are subsidiaries of the UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental body of the Government, which dishes out £8 billion of taxpayers’ money each year. Respectively, AHRC and ESRC have awarded £841,830 and £668,244 to the studies 'The Europe that Gay Porn Built, 1945-2000' and 'Pregnant Men: An International Exploration of Trans Male Experiences and Practices of Reproduction', to give you an idea of their merits.
The UKRI has nine research councils in total, some more serious than others. When you scan the UKRI website you may think that’s it in terms of taxpayer funding. But the UKRI then has even more offshoots from which funds pour. One of these is titled 'The Future Leaders Fellowships' scheme, the subject of my article today. Not all FLF grants are dreadful, to add. For instance, last year the UKRI spent £120 million on research into the causes of lung cancer and Alzheimer’s disease through its FLF programme. However, it’s another example of serious research being let down by the more trivial kind, as well as projects that don’t appear to have any relevance to the UK, as you will soon see. Without further ado:
Ending Extreme Poverty through Social Protection? Experimental Evidence from 10-year
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I’ve been getting it in the neck on Ars Technica when they reported on Trump’s cuts to research and I commented that if it got rid of funding for string theory then it couldn’t be all bad. If I remember correctly I called it welfare for theoretical physicists. People got very upset at the idea that decades of producing no results should be defunded.
It’s a form of academic Deathwatch Beetle infesting all our institutions and insidiously destroying them. Action is needed this day. Great research for which thanks.
This mirrors what Donald is finding in the US now the Far Left have been removed. Huge amounts of taxpayer dollars being funnelled to the Far Left and immigrant communities that could be used to lower taxes.
This makes me feel “cold rage”!
I’m sure that none of this type of thing went on under the 14 years of Tory rule we had until recently 🙂
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes, but remember that for those 14 years the Tories were a socialist government and signed up to the Uniparty. That the Tories are Uniparty members is being made obvious by their decision in local government to form coalitions with anybody but Reform – kind of like in Germany where the most popular party AfD is shunned – which I think should be taken as a warning as to what the Nigerian might do if the next general election creates a stalemate.
I don’t trust them and I never will
Why would medical research not be funded through the NHS, Teaching Hospitals or a medical research body. By doing it through the leadership fund the accountability and budgetary control is ruined.
A society in self-destruct mode.
If I was an sensible academic, I’d be very embarrassed to be associated with any of these. But I guess some are just plain desperate – look forward to reading about the results in the Mail or Sun