Conor Fitzpatrick

It was your comments on here that sent me looking- I wanted to pass on the details elsewhere. Wonder if Lord Drayson can be asked for comment on the present situation...

Dame @chionwurah.bsky.social and @georgefreemanmp.bsky.social might be interested in the work of the committee 2009-2010 @ben-shave.bsky.social : publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/... I'm getting whiplash from reading this.

yep! assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7bff...

For... reasons... I've been doing a bit of archaeology, @johnwomersley.bsky.social @iansample.bsky.social

This ⬇️, the other Infrastructure project deprioritisations, the 30% cuts planned at STFC, are not "doing fewer things better". These long term endeavours are already streamlined like a whippet. This UKRI funding rebalancing will result in the UK losing world leading science. #UKRI #STFC #physics

I, along with many other UKRI, STFC and RS fellows are signing this open letter on the STFC cuts. The proposed reductions will devastate UK astronomy and the researchers who make it possible. Please read, share, and, if a fellow, sign.

advancedfellows-openletter-stfc.github.io/index.html

#astro

CERN upgrade to LHCb experiment threatened by UK funding cuts – Physics World Upgrade to the UK-led project is unlikely to go ahead if UK funding cuts are not reversed

Article from @physicsworld.bsky.social about the decision to withdraw UK funding from the @lhcb.bsky.social upgrade, without which LHCb will not be able to exploit the high luminosity LHC (which the UK has already paid for via the CERN subscription).

physicsworld.com/a/cern-upgra...

But what also seems to be missing is an acknowledgement that STFC is providing facilities for researchers across almost all areas of research. Hence, why is the pain not being shared more equally, or why is there not some protection for the grants line in STFC?

Myth busting:

QR long predates the idea of 80% FEC. It was designed to sustain uni's as a national research capability, not to mop up funding shortfalls.

I’d like to think that's why QR is in UKRI's bucket 1, but I suspect it’s mainly to make the bucket bigger

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...

All are similarly hedged as it's a dsit requirement. Whether the contributions have stayed the same or not I've not checked but all the more reason to require specific detail from ukri on what the actual overruns are

This argument is one trotted out by Sir Ian as well, unfortunately it's not correct for two reasons: Intl. subscriptions are hedged against foreign exchange fluctuations, and the CERN subscription hasn't changed over the last 5 years even including inflation.

The CERN subscription is slightly cheaper in 2026 than it was in 2025 adjusted for inflation as well. It has been the same amount +/- 5MGBP every year since 2021 in 2025 pounds.

UKRI Annual report 2024-2025:

UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities UK’s research funding body says best scientists are taking posts overseas due to lack of job stability at home

Good article by @iansample.bsky.social but repeats the incorrect statement that subscriptions to international projects such as Cern and the European Space Agency rise with foreign exchange rates. CERN subscription has stayed flat by construction. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Appalling news. @ukri.org has some serious questions to answer. How was prioritisation made and how is UK's world leading international science programmes being tensioned against national facilities?

Conclusion: even if this is a fuck-up, it's a fuck-up whose outcomes are useful to some. It won't be reversed until the political pain of doing nothing about it becomes too great to continue. Dial up the political pressure. Don't let it get buried in the news cycle.

Parliamentlive.tv Science, Innovation and Technology Committee

Some thoughts on the select committee appearance by the boss of UKRI, Ian Chapman yesterday. It’s a long watch but can be seen here: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...
Thread 🧵

Unfortunately Sir Ian seems to be confusing the CERN subscription with the CERN experiments. See thread: bsky.app/profile/fitz...

@ben-shave.bsky.social

Cutting the projects means the benefits of the CERN subscription go to other member states who get to reap the rewards!

To simplify: The CERN Subscription provides the accelerator, the STFC projects provide the experiments. The experiments support the thousands of researchers at UK institutes and are how they tender to UK industry and publish their work.

Again @ukri.org CEO seems to think the CERN subscription pays for the experiments! This is wrong!

Interesting that @ukri.org CEO thinks it would be too much effort to compare past funding allocation to future allocation. @chionwurah.bsky.social correctly notes accountability issue with this. Looking forward to seeing the comparison.

Some initial reactions to the 'published on a Sunday afternoon' letter from the CEO of UKRI. 🧵

www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Support for Curiosity Driven Research is very much not being protected given the bonfire at STFC and the infrastructure fund 😭

UK’s science superpower hopes hit as Labour slashes physics funding University funding for astronomy and physics research cut by almost a third as government seeks to concentrate budget on areas that prioritise economic growth

"Physics isn't a luxury we can afford to throw away through confusion and cuts."

Following our response to STFC's funding reductions yesterday, it's great to see this news covered in @thetimes.com. (1/4)

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

A comprehensive analysis of the $B^0\to K^{*0}μ^+μ^-$ decay An analysis of the $B^{0}\rightarrow K^{*0}(\to K^+ π^-)μ^{+}μ^{-}$ decay is presented using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of...

Early Christmas present from LHCb: the update of our B->K*mumu analysis using the full dataset recorded by the first iteration of our machine!
Excitingly, we see significant deviations from Standard Model predictions - roughly '4 sigma' if you look at everything together.

arxiv.org/abs/2512.18053

Ooh that's prime economist headlining. I bet that came with some primo charts and graphs.

Aren't you forgetting who you shared it with? 😀

Disappointed that isn't deltam_s on the 20.