UK's iconic Jodrell Bank telescope faces axe in science cuts
UKRI cut the observatory’s £2.8 million annual budget, putting 28 jobs at risk and ending scientific observations unless new funding is found.
- The Jodrell Bank Observatory, which has housed the UK's largest telescope for nearly 70 years, has lost its funding and could close, BBC News understands, threatening the iconic Lovell Telescope.
- Budgetary constraints forced the UKRI, which manages under £10bn annually, to cut the observatory's £2.8m budget due to escalating research costs in physics and laboratory operations.
- Twenty-Eight jobs are at risk at the Cheshire site, while closure would affect nearly 3,000 scientists using the network; Prof Simon Garrington told BBC News staff are "devastated."
- Scotland's Astronomer Royal, Prof Catherine Heymans, described the decision as "a real act of national self-harm," while Prof Michael Kramer of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy called it "scientifically, technologically as well as economically short-sighted."
- All scientific observations at Jodrell are expected to cease on April 1, 2028, unless alternative funding is secured, as the Square Kilometre Array in South Africa and Australia prepares to come online.
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The Toronto Star
The future of the UK’s renowned Lovell radio telescope is in question after a funding cut
LONDON (AP) — Scientists have reacted with alarm to news that the British government will cut funding to the world-famous radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest England that has been helping explore…
The future of Britain’s renowned Lovell radio telescope is in question after a funding cut
Scientists have reacted with alarm to news that the British government will cut funding to the world-famous radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest England that has been helping explore the cosmos for almost 70 years.
Associated Press News
The future of the UK's renowned Lovell radio telescope is in question after a funding cut
Scientists are alarmed by the British government's decision to cut funding for the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory. U.K.
The Register
technewstube.comSignals are grim for Jodrell Bank Observatory after UK science funding decision
Jodrell Bank Observatory faces an uncertain future after UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) pulled funding. The UK's Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics (PPAN) science budget is decreasing by 2.7 percent over four years, which, coupled with increasing costs, means cuts seem inevitable, and the venerable Jodrell Bank could be on the chopping block. Professor Michele Dougherty, Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Co…
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