Tory David Willetts Named UK Minister of State for Universities and Science. (May 14, 2010)

In his capacity as Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts (54) will attend cabinet meetings but not as a full member. Mr Willetts attended Christ Church, Oxford where he studied philosophy, politics and economics; in short he does not have a science background.

While in opposition, among other posts, he held the positions of shadow education secretary and, most recently, shadow minister for universities and skills. With the coalition government looking to cut £6 billion from government spending this year he will have a job to maintain funding for the research councils. And it will be remembered that science was never a significant issue during the election, it being hardly raised in the three debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg.

The matter of the allocation of funding for research to Britain's universities is now also to be determined. The RAE's peer-review assessments of the past were to be replaced. The previous government was due to bring in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) which was to rely significantly on metrics.

The Conservative Party manifesto pledged to delay the implementation of the REF but gave no details as what it would devise were it to attain government.

There is also an ironic twist in the awarding of portfolios: Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, is the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. He will be in charge of the coalition government's policy of promoting new building of nuclear power stations, but Liberal Democrat policy opposes them.