The aim of making the UK a “science superpower” is welcome, but the deficiencies in the government’s strategy highlighted in a Lords report are only the start (‘Science superpower’ plan risks making UK bureaucracy superpower, says peer, 4 August).
Lord Krebs compared the amount of bureaucracy involved to “setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together”. However, the report barely mentions mathematics, the bedrock of all the sciences. Without a greater focus on the mathematical sciences, the nation is in danger of setting off on a marathon without any footwear.
In January 2020, the government announced £300m in additional funding for the mathematical sciences. Yet two years later, the majority of this funding has yet to be delivered. And while some may point to all that has occurred in the intervening time, do not forget that it is maths that illuminated the path out of the Covid crisis via its use in modelling the pandemic, underpinning the science behind the vaccines and informing the rollout of those vital medicines.
University maths departments need clarity on the sustainability of funding to greenlight study programmes that will last years, and that could provide the next technological breakthrough.
Maths enables scientific and technological developments, it is key to our national security and contributes billions of pounds to GDP. Without explicit support and investment for all the mathematical sciences, this will be at risk.
Prof Ulrike Tillmann
London Mathematical Society
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