MIST resolutions in response to STFC delivery plan
In response to the STFC delivery plan, announced in December 2007, the MIST council organised a community business meeting on Monday 21 January 2008. The meeting revolved around the community's concern with the manner in which the STFC delivery plan was formed. A major cause of concern was that STFC have decided to remove funding for ground-based solar-terrestrial facilities. The meeting was well attended with representatives from most of the STP groups in the UK. Unfortunately the poor weather prevented some of our colleagues from attending.
Prof. Richard Wade from STFC attended the meeting and took part in a question and answer session in the morning. A report on this disucssion will be posted soon.
Following lunch three draft resolutions, indicating the position of the MIST community, were discussed, these were further developed by the attendees and voted on.
All statements were passed unanimously by the attending members of MIST with a show of hands. The first two actions were voted for unanimously and the third passed overwhelmingly.
The full statements and actions passed by the MIST community are presented below ancd reflect the strength of feeling in the MIST community.
Contrary to prior reassurances, the structure and operation of the newly-formed STFC has resulted in grant funding for research being subject to the vagaries of variations in major international subscriptions and in the operating budgets of large facilities, largely unrelated to the STFC grant-supported research programme.
The MIST community believes that these arrangements are disastrous for all the grant-supported research communities that the STFC serves, in particular having substantial negative impact on HEI Physics Departments throughout the UK both immediately and in the long-term.
While participation in international programmes and the provision of cutting-edge facilities are essential, it is equally important to ensure the health of the grant-supported research communities, including young scientists, who scientifically exploit these investments.
Rapid steps must be taken to implement new administrative arrangements that ensure stable grant funding, preferably by transferring grant-awarding activities to another body.
The MIST community is deeply concerned about the lack of transparency in recent decision-making within the STFC, the lack of appropriate domain knowledge within its policy-forming structures, and the lack of consultation and discussion with the community.
We are particularly exercised about the process, basis, and rationale through which the decision was taken to “cease all support for ground-based solar-terrestrial physics facilities”.
This decision appears perverse in view of the existing, and future potential for, high-impact world class research in this area, the contribution to the motivation and training of young scientists, and the immediate connection to knowledge exchange and economic impact, all of which are directly aligned with the government’s vision for the mission of the STFC.
As a first step we request publication of all procedures, criteria, metrics, performance indicators and rankings that were developed in the steps leading up to and during the key research council reviews that led to the decisions announced in the December 2007 Delivery Plan. This request includes reviews of predecessor bodies cited as pertinent by STFC, notably the last PPARC programmatic review.
Furthermore, we request the timely publication of the STFC science strategy and evaluation criteria and metrics for future grant application rounds, including the forthcoming round in June 2008.
We also support the calls by the Institute of Physics, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Particle Physics community for a moratorium on implementation of the STFC Delivery Plan until the Wakeham Review of Physics has been conducted and its conclusions reported, and we call on DIUS to find the modest funding needed to allow this to happen.
In view of the above considerations the MIST community wishes to express no confidence in the financial, administrative, decision-making, and communication arrangements within the STFC as presently implemented. These are inadequate to provide appropriate future stewardship of our research discipline to the scientific, cultural, and economic benefit of the UK, and inadequate for the training of young scientists, which is of clear benefit to physics in the UK.
We request a change of the structures, and individuals in the STFC council, responsible for the current failure.