chesneycat (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} chesneycat) wrote,@ 2007-12-11 13:31:00 |
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| Current mood: |  Furiously, seethingly irate! |
| Entry tags: | astronomy, fucking fuckity fuck fuck fuck, how do you spell 'brain drain'?, research |
The shit's hitting the fan.
Or rather, it ought to be. But we've just had our fan taken away.
The good news is in the research council's priorities: origin and evolution of galaxies and large scale structure is highly rated, as are extra-solar planets. ESO membership is secure, along with ALMA, VISTA, and we're still looking good for funding the ELT and Square Kilometre Array (although... 'Decisions on investment in construction of these facilities will not be needed before 2010' doesn't sound as promising as it looks to be at first glance), and getting instruments on board Herschel and the James Webb space telescopes.
It's hoped we retain access to Gemini-North (read into that what you will), but we seem to be ditching our full membership of that and Gemini-South. JCMT is safe as long as SCUBA-2 is being exploited. The Isaac Newton Group is being wound down.
*BANG*
That's the William Herschel Telescope being executed.
UKIRT, lovely, lovely UKIRT, is on very shaky ground, as is the Liverpool Telescope. Ground based solar-terrestrial physics is dead in the water. AstroGRID... well, I wouldn't want to be a software person now.
But here's the kicker:
"We will target our investment in astronomy grants taking account of reduced facility availability."
That, my friends, is the tolling bell for the employment of postdocs, and the funding of lecturers' research. I never thought I'd be so relieved to be leaving the country.
Aha! I know what this is! This is the solution to the current dearth of physics teachers, isn't it? Because there's nothing like turning a huge swathe of your workforce into embittered, unemployed wretches (with a grudge) to inspire the next generation of scientists, is there?
Welcome to the FailBoat.
Expect to see a lot of people jumping ship over the next few years.
