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Dept of Trade and Industry

Answer

Mr. Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will announce the allocation of the Science Budget; and if he will make a statement. [56842] Mr. Mandelson: As a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Science Budget was increased by £700 million over the next three years. This is solid evidence that science is a major priority for the Government. Of these additional funds, £300 million is the Science Budget contribution to a ground breaking £600 million partnership with the Wellcome Trust to upgrade university research laboratories and equipment. I am most grateful to the Trustees of the Trust for their contribution, and also their further contribution of £110 million towards the cost of a new high intensity X-ray source. Over the period of these allocations, £35 million of the Science Budget has been reserved for this DIAMOND project. A further £20 million of the additional money for the Science Budget is earmarked for the Science Budget's contribution to "University Challenge", a joint project to provide seed corn funding to enable universities to exploit ideas emerging from their research. After receiving advice from action from the Director General of Research Councils, I have decided that the Science Budget should be allocated as follows: £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 BBSRC 185.739 198.299 202.994 208.189 ESRC 65.990 69.754 71.174 72.901 EPSRC 382.982 397.584 410.850 427.179 MRC 290.208 304.538 319.173 334.068 NERC{1} 168.819 178.530 181.757 187.457 PPARC{1} 194.220 196.306 200.687 204.228 International/Contingency 3.028 (9.185) 15.000 15.000 CCLRC 1.462 2.000 2.000 2.000 Royal Society 22.621 23.850 24.622 25.745 Royal Academy of Engineering 3.436 3.706 4.025 4.270 OST Initiatives 2.376 2.750 2.800 2.850 Superannuation Supplement 12.298 11.991 14.368 14.750 Foresight LINK Awards 1.000 1.000 3.000 4.000 University Challenge -- 10.000 10.000 -- DIAMOND -- -- 15.000 20.000 Joint Research Equipment 4.147 7.000 10.000 10.000 Initiative Joint Infrastructure Fund -- 75.000 100.000 125.000 Total 1,338.326 1,473.123 1,587.450 1,657.637 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} NERC and PPARC figures for 1998-99 have been adjusted for cash flow changes to show the underlying baseline Further details are available in a booklet on the allocations, which I have placed in the library of both Houses

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

318 c136-8W; 56842

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Finance Technology Research Science

Contains statistics

Yes