New U.K. Minister for Universities and Science, Holds His First Media Briefing. (May 19, 2010)

David Willetts, the new U.K. Minister of State for universities and science, held his first media briefing yesterday and opened by parrying numerous questions concerning science funding which did little to dispel the angst regarding impending cuts.

On the other hand he did comment that: "scientific enterprise is one of the most intellectually exciting things happening in the world today," and added, "I understand the crucial importance of blue-skies research. Scientific research can't all be reduced to utilitarian calculations," but then followed with, "It is not possible to exempt science from scrutiny ... the boom has now come to an end... the state of our public finances is particularly vulnerable. ... It is going to be tough. ... There is a cash constraints on what the government can afford."

With regard to specific issues Mr Willetts--

1. Will make as his goal vowed to consolidate all public funding for space research to come under the control of a single agency.

2. Stopped short of calling for codifying the protection of those giving independent scientific advice to governmental ministers.

3. Accepted the evidence of human-induced climate change.

4. Regarding work with hybrid embryos said: "I think it's fair to say I [am] concerned that the pace of some of these proposed scientific experiments [is] running ahead of what our culture [is] willing to accept."

5. While referring to the previous government's attempts to morph the peer-reviewed approach of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) into a metric based Research Excellence Framework: "We cannot reduce science to an economic balance sheet," and even questioned whether the expensive, time-consuming RAE was the best way to evaluate where funding should go.

Pam Tatlow, reporting in the Guardian remarked: "Unlike some of his predecessors, at least he knows what the research assessment exercise (RAE) is."