Written evidence submitted by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) (AST0014)

1. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) welcomes the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s interest in UK Astronomy. UKRI operates across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of £8 billion and brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.

2. As part of UKRI, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is the principal UK funding body for Astronomy.

3. STFC has an annual budget of over £900M and over 2,500 staff, most of whom are scientists, technicians, and engineers in STFC’s National Laboratories, which include RAL Space and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.

4. STFC is a multi-faceted organisation bringing together traditional research council functions with the construction and operation of many of the UK’s large multi-disciplinary facilities. STFC also manages the relationships with several large international organisations, including CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO).

5. STFC’s mission is:
• discovering the secrets of the Universe (from the smallest scales of particle physics to the large-scale astronomical structure of the universe)
• developing world-leading technologies (including bespoke technologies for ground- and space-based astronomy)
• and innovating to solve real-world challenges.

6. STFC’s Astronomy and Space Science programme provides support for a wide range of facilities, research groups and individuals to investigate the highest priority questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and solar system science. In this response, we focus on observational astronomy with both ground and space-based observatories, and related astrophysical and cosmological theory. STFC also works with the UK Space Agency (UKSA) in providing funding for scientific exploitation of space-based observatories and works closely with UKSA in providing scientific advice on future missions. STFC’s Astronomy programme also leverages investment by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in relevant instrumentation technologies.

The strengths of UK astronomy and how these compare to other nations

7. The UK astronomy community stretches across the UK, including 290 academics, 220 postdoctoral research assistants, and a cohort of around 360 doctoral students. STFC supports around 125 new doctoral students in astronomy per annum. Major research groups include Oxford, Cambridge, UCL (with Mullard Space Science Laboratory), Imperial, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, Durham, and Queen’s Belfast. The number of academics had grown at around 5% per annum since 1990, although this growth has flattened since 2017.    

8. The STFC 2023/24 budget for Astronomy is £61M:

• £33M for grants supporting science exploitation in universities.
• £20M for R&D for new/upgrades to facilities and instruments.
• £8M for the operations of facilities.

9. STFC also provides the funding for the international subscriptions to two astronomy-focused International Governmental Organisations (IGOs):

• The European Southern Observatory (ESO)[3], approximately £30M per annum.
• The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)[4] at a total cost of £277M over ten years for the UK contribution to construction and initial operations.

These contributions are part of STFC’s international partition, which by design is separate from the funding of the core astronomy programme. Membership of ESO and SKAO was prioritised over other international facilities to provide the UK with access to the world’s leading ground-based optical and radio astronomy observatories.  

10. The equivalent subscription for the European Space Agency (ESA) is managed by UKSA, including the space-based astronomy missions in the Science Programme, with STFC funding the scientific exploitation of data from these missions.

11. The UK’s astronomy research programme is world class. The UK has consistently ranked in the top four in the volume of scientific peer-reviewed publications in astronomy since 2008, typically behind only the USA and vying with Germany for second place[5]. When considering field-normalised citation impact, the UK’s global position ranges from first to fourth – alongside France, Germany, and Italy – and outperforms the USA. UK authors are second only to the USA in the Thomson-Reuters ‘highly cited researchers’ list[6] and, in addition, UK astronomy delivers more highly cited papers than our close competitor nations (USA, Germany, Italy, and France[7]).

12. The strength of the UK astronomy community is reflected by its effectiveness at securing competitive international funding. Prior to Horizon Europe, UK astronomers won 25% of all ERC grants in the ‘Universe Science’ domain (2007-2020), despite the scheme being open to all EU Member States and Associated Countries[8].

13. The UK astronomy community has world-leading research groups whose work has been recognised for revolutionising our understanding of the Universe. In recent years:
• Professor Didier Queloz (Professor of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) was jointly awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for pioneering advances in physical cosmology and the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system: an exoplanet, orbiting a solar-type star. This discovery started a revolution in astronomy and over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way[9].
• In 2016, Professor James Hough, Professor Sheila Rowan and there Glasgow-based team were awarded a share of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, for work that contributed to one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of this century: the first detection of gravitational waves which was announced in February 2016[10].

14. A key factor underpinning the strength of astronomy research in the UK is its breadth and depth of subject matter and approach: from the origins of the Universe to the development of stars and galaxies, Solar System science, and the search for other worlds. The UK is internationally recognised as a leading player across a wide range of observational and theoretical astrophysical disciplines.

15. STFC-funded astronomy programmes provide researchers with access to cutting-edge facilities enabling world-class science. For example, membership of ESO provides the UK with preferential access to facilities that cannot be replicated domestically, as well as opportunities to participate in research underpinning ESO’s technology projects[11].

16. STFC investments enable the UK to play leading roles in instrument development for some of the world’s most significant facilities. UK research groups involved in instrument developments then benefit from guaranteed observation time in exchange for their contribution and technology development opportunities[12]. Recent examples of instrument developments led by the UK include:
• Multi-Object Optical and Near IR Spectrograph (MOONS). An STFC-led project to develop a next generation spectrograph for ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. MOONS is being built by a consortium of 10 institutions across six countries. The partners are building different parts of the instrument which will be brought together and assembled at the STFC UK Astronomy and Technology Centre (UK ATC), before being tested and shipped to Chile[13].
• WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE). WEAVE is a recent major upgrade to the William Herschel Telescope (part of the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes in La Palma). The consortium to develop WEAVE was led by the University of Oxford and STFC’s RAL Space[14].
• High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph (HARMONI). When complete, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope will be the world's largest and most sensitive ground-based optical/near-infrared telescope. The UK is leading an international consortium of seven institutes from four countries to develop one of the two high-profile first light instruments, HARMONI. HARMONI will likely be the most productive instrument for most of the user community during the first years of ELT operation, and thus has a high profile across the ESO member states[15].

17. STFC investments have helped to establish UK leadership and reputation on the world-stage by enabling the UK to play a central role in delivering major international projects and facilities. The most notable recent example is the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO). SKAO is co-hosted by Australia, South Africa, and the UK, with the telescope arrays in Australia and South Africa and the SKAO global headquarters at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire. The three co-hosts are the largest contributors in a €2bn international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope. The UK invested £19.5M in the initial construction and extension of the global headquarters[16] which has been designed to become a centre for radio astronomy and a global hub for astrophysics in the 21st Century[17]. 

18. The experience and reputation of UK researchers results in high-profile international appointments for UK personnel. For example:
• Professor Gillian Wright, Director of the STFC’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre, was appointed European Principal Investigator for the Mid-Infrared instrument (MIRI) on the James Webb Space Telescope, leading a European Consortium to develop the instrument in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory[18].
• Professor Philip Diamond (previously University of Manchester) has led the SKAO project since 2012.

Recent Challenges for UK astronomy and level of support

19. Through advice from its Science Board and Council, STFC prioritises activities across the astronomy programme to ensure that the UK retains its leadership position in global astronomy.

20. In the last ten years there have been significant pressures on funding the scientific exploitation of the UK astronomy programme. Between 2011 and 2021:

• the number of academics in astronomy and astrophysics in UK universities increased by over 20% due to new appointments.
• due to a series of near flat-cash CSR settlements, the financing of the STFC core funded astronomy programme increased by approximately 5%, below the cumulative rate of inflation.
• the costs of doing research increased substantially, with the average cost of supporting an astronomy postdoctoral researcher increasing by almost 35%, driven in part by a nearly 40% increase in university indirect costs.

Despite deprioritising other funding lines, the combined effect of the above factors was a 7% reduction in the number of early-career postdoctoral researchers.

21. To mitigate the impact on support for early-career researchers, STFC reduced support for early-stage Research and Development and, on the advice of its Astronomy Grants Panel and Science Board, reduced the fraction of academic time awarded to Principal Investigators.

22. These pressures, which were present across the entire STFC Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics programme, resulted in a situation where the UK was not leveraging the full value of its international investments due to a sub-optimal level of investment in the National Programmes. Addressing this issue was a top priority in the STFC Delivery Plan for the current spending review period.

Astronomy in the STFC Delivery Plan 2022-2025 and beyond

23. The first three-year spending review settlement since the creation of UKRI (covering the years FY22/23 – FY24/25) provided an opportunity to address some of the funding challenges with astronomy (and the wider particle physics, astronomy, and nuclear physics programme). One of the highest priorities in STFC’s Delivery Plan was to better balance the funding of the national programme relative to the fixed costs of international subscriptions. Specifically, prioritising investment in early-career researchers, significantly increasing funding for early-stage R&D/commercialisation and investing in future capital projects (primarily through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund).

24. STFC is committed to increasing investment in the national Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics programmes, enabling more early-career UK scientists to exploit the wider UK’s investments. Over a five-year period, the aim is to restore numbers of early-career postdoctoral researchers to the levels of 2010 through year-on-year increases in funding for ‘Consolidated Grants’. The first two years of this funding increase where key commitments in the STFC delivery plan (+£6M in FY23/24 and +£13M in FY24/25). Subject to affordability, the goal is to continue these year-on-year increases for a further three years beyond this spending review period.

25. STFC significantly strengthened funding for cutting edge research and development, and innovation from its science communities, including the astronomy community. An early-stage R&D scheme was re-introduced in 2022. This is critically important in allowing both UK academia and industry support to develop the leading-edge capability and therefore placing the UK in a strong position to lead new facility developments and win contracts from organisations like ESO and ESA. Funding for this scheme will be £2.5M per year from 2023, with goal of increasing to £4M per annum in the next spending review period.

26. STFC recently simplified its innovation schemes into a single commercialisation scheme. Jointly funded with Innovate UK, a follow-on commercialisation funding scheme (£4M per year) was launched in 2023, targeting the commercialisation of ideas from STFC funded R&D in partnership with industry.

27. STFC is committed to maintaining a pipeline of skilled talent into the astronomy programme. This includes a commitment to prioritising funding to maintain existing numbers of PhD studentships despite the recent significant increases in student stipends. The importance of retaining the appropriate balance between PhD studentships, early-career postdoctoral researchers and new capital commitments is a key principle agreed by STFC Council.   

28. Fellowship support is provided through the Ernest Rutherford Fellowships (STFC), Stephen Hawking Fellowships (joint EPSRC/STFC) and UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships. The combined impact of these new schemes has been to approximately double the total number STFC/UKRI-funded fellows in all STFC science areas compared to 2018.

29. STFC continues to make significant new capital investments to ensure the UK continues to play an internationally leading role in research at the forefront of astronomy including:

• The Simons Observatory (SO) cosmic microwave background experiment. This £18M investment from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund will allow six UK universities to deliver a major contribution to an upgrade that significantly increase the sensitivity of the facility in Chile and help us understand how the Big Bang led to the formation of stars and galaxies[19].
• The UK-built Gravitational Wave Optical Transient observer (GOTO), which can quickly locate the fleeting signals released by the collision of neutron stars. Built with £3.2M of UKRI funding, GOTO is now operational and supports the rapid optical follow up of the discoveries from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors[20].
• Additional investment (£8M) from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund has been awarded for UK R&D and scoping studies towards the next generation of Gravitational Wave detectors that will deliver a step change in sensitivity in the next decade.
• Further investment from the UKRI Infrastructure Fund (£6.8M) will allow UK scientists to play leading roles in developing the next generation of instruments for the Extremely Large Telescope.

The aims and focus of UK astronomy

30. STFC has a deep scientific advisory structure to ensure our investments are aligned to the strategic priorities of the UK astronomy community. Astronomy is an inherently international and collaborative endeavour; thus the UK strategy is closely aligned to the ‘Strategic Plan for European Astronomy – Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap 2022-35’ [21], the ESA Voyage 2050 vision and the US Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics[22].

31. Advice on UK priorities within these frameworks is provided by STFC’s Astronomy Advisory Panel and Solar Systems Advisory Panel. These panels provide strategic science advice to the STFC Executive and STFC’s Science Boards.

32. In 2023, STFC moved from a single Science Board to two Science Boards, focusing separately on a) the Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics programmes and b) STFC facilities and national laboratories. The new Science Boards provide focused advice on prioritised 10-year roadmaps to inform future investments.

The extent to which UK astronomy contributes to the UK’s status as a science superpower

33. The UK’s status as a science superpower is enhanced through the ‘science diplomacy’ or ‘soft power’ enabled by the internationally collaborative nature of UK astronomy. Almost every aspect is undertaken in partnership with astronomy communities globally: notably in Europe, the USA and Japan, but also Australia, South Africa, India and beyond.

34. The skills, knowledge and collaborative expertise of the UK astronomy community also provide significant benefits to other scientific disciplines via multi-disciplinary collaboration. A recent example is the Space Weather Innovation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk (SWIMMR) programme: a £20M UKRI programme led by STFC in partnership with the Natural Environment Research Council, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Department for Transport, Ministry of Defence, and the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre[23].

35. An independent socio-economic impact evaluation study of the UK subscription to ESO, commissioned by STFC in 2022, identified the following benefits realised through astronomy ‘science diplomacy’: 

• International engagement, leadership, and agenda-setting
• Influencing decision making, enhancing alignment with UK capabilities and priorities
• Favourable perceptions of the UK as a country to partner with or invest in.

36. Involvement in the governance of international science organisations provides the UK with a platform for international engagement, leadership and agenda setting in science. For example, the UK currently holds two of the five top ESO posts (Director of Science and Director of Programmes) and accounts for 6-7% of all ESO staff members and Fellows, or around 50 people[24].

37. The UK’s leading role in international projects offers the opportunity to influence decision making and enhance alignment with UK capabilities and priorities. For example, the UK played a leading role both within the design and governance of the SKAO project and continues to play a leading role during construction. As a member state, the UK has two representatives on the SKAO Council, the governing body of the intergovernmental organisation. Together with academia and industry, STFC’s National Laboratories lead SKAO construction activities in key areas, such as software development, and cryogenic receiver design[25].

38. Astronomy also offers opportunities for international collaboration and exchange which have the potential to enhance the perception of the UK on the global stage. The Development for Africa through Radio Astronomy (DARA)[26] is a partnership between six UK universities and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory to use the astronomy of SKA to promote STEM education in Africa.

Whether the UK is maximising the contribution that astronomy can make to the wider UK economy

39. The UK’s international astronomy programme enables multiple pathways for industrial return and economic contribution. Work associated with membership of flagship astronomy programmes creates economic benefits. For example, UK contributions to ESO have averaged £22.7M per annum (in 2020 prices) over its 19 years of membership (excluding joining fees and a special contribution for the ELT). Only accounting for socio-economic impacts suitable for monetisation resulted in a conservative estimate of £45.5M per annum in benefits for the UK (2020 prices), complemented by a wide range of non-monetised impacts across research, innovation, skills, and diplomacy[27].

40. Contributions to the wider UK economy have also been made through novel technology developments with applications beyond astronomy. UK scientists and engineers have been heavily involved in the development of ESO instruments, leading to a wide range of novel technologies, including:

• Active and Adaptive optics – paving the way for future application in optical and quantum communication.
• Next generation lasers – with compact footprints, low maintenance cost, long service lives and excellent beam quality.
• Time Reference Systems – applied in the field of navigation (GPS, interplanetary spacecraft navigation) and global geodynamics, which demand high precision[28].

41. Membership of large-scale astronomy facilities also provides opportunities for UK companies to win commercial contracts. For example, the UK has secured £117M in ESO contracts (2002-20) representing 12.2% of the value of contracts across all ESO Member States[29].

42. UK membership of international organisations such as ESO, ESA and SKAO places the UK in a prime position for involvement in instrument development. This enables UK industry to compete for lucrative contracts, provides a platform for the UK to influence scientific direction, and builds skills in the UK community to take advantage of the instruments when installed[30].  Recent examples include the award of multi-million-pound contracts to Teledyne e2v for the supply of detectors and Andor Technology Belfast played a key role in the delivery of cameras for the Daniel K. Inouye Telescope, the world’s largest solar telescope.

43. Astronomy PhD students develop highly sought-after skills (including the use of AI). On completing their degree, at least 25% of STFC-funded Astronomy PhD students move directly into the private sector, with a significant fraction taking up positions requiring advanced skills in software[31].

What role astronomy is playing in encouraging greater participation in STEM and public interest in science

44. Astronomy has the ability to inspire and STFC strives to maximise the impact in engaging the public. Alongside particle physics, UK astronomy research is the key area that STFC promotes to the media[32]. Since 2018, the STFC Wonder Initiative has prioritised working with communities from the 40% most economically deprived areas of the UK[33].

45. STFC awards funding for Public Engagement. Recent examples include projects focused on Mars, the Sun, and the Winchcombe meteorite.

46. From 2016-2022 STFC led a campaign to maximise the public engagement potential of the UK’s involvement in the James Webb Space Telescope, using this as a springboard into STEM for children and young people. This campaign reached over 700,000 participants including 1700 schools. On Christmas Day 2021, STFC organised a virtual media hook-up between the news media and UK astronomers on the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope into space.

47. STFC’s strategic partnership with the Association for Science and Discovery Centres) uses astronomy to inspire and engage young people and their families by sharing inspiring stories related to the STFC astronomy programme. To date over 400,000 people have directly engaged with the project.

48. Enabled by a direct collaboration with NASA, the UK is the only other country apart from the USA operating a loans scheme with real samples of Moon rocks and soil collected by Apollo astronauts. Since the scheme launched, over one million people in the UK have seen or handled the samples.

49. While the Liverpool Telescope is mainly used for professional astronomical research, up to 10% of its available time is devoted to educational projects run by the National Schools’ Observatory (NSO) at Liverpool John Moores University. This offers school pupils near-immediate access to a world-class observatory. Since its launch in 2004, there have been over 200,000 observing requests from schools. The scheme has a wide reach, with the NSO website attracting almost 4 million visits this year[34].

About UKRI

Launched in 2018, UKRI is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the largest public funder of research and innovation in the UK. UKRI is nine councils working individually and collectively across all disciplines and sectors. Together we connect discovery to prosperity and public good, enriching lives and enabling high productivity economic growth, job creation and high-quality public services across the UK.

UKRI invests in people, teams, places and infrastructure, strengthening the skills, organisations, and collaborations needed to explore and develop game-changing ideas within and across disciplines. We build and tune a portfolio of investments with aligned incentives to capture the benefits of research and innovation for the UK, tackling challenges from climate change to healthy aging, and harnessing the opportunities from new technologies from AI to engineering biology. UKRI works with our many partners and stakeholders to shape a dynamic, diverse and inclusive research and innovation system that gives everyone the opportunity to participate and to benefit.

27 October 2023