FADA: Framework for Animations of Distributed Algorithms

Professor Keith George Mason is main executive director of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which finances uranology and atom physical science in the UK.

The STFC have been embroiled in a violent storm of unfavorable judgment over cuts to its scientific discipline portfolio.

BBC News scientific discipline newsman Alice Paul Rincon interviewed Professor George Mason in Belfast, where he was preparing to turn to uranologists gathered for their yearly meeting.

Paul Rincon: Rich Person you been surprised by the strength and arrangement of the resistance to cuts proposed by the STFC?

Professor Keith Mason: Well, I believe one have to first of all recognise why we're having to do economic systems in certain countries of our programmes. That's because there is a restructuring of the manner scientific discipline is funded in the UK. There is more than money going into science; but we had a state of affairs up until very recently where the university research alkali in peculiar was not sustainable.

The cloth of university buildings, for example, was deteriorating and cipher was paying for them. We are changing that. We're going to an epoch of Full Economic Costing. We're putting a batch more money into universities for the research they're doing. This unfortunately intends that is taking up the new money in the short term; but it will be deserving it in the end.

These are difficult decisions, and determinations that we are determined to confront up to, because that's what our occupation is - to maintain the United Kingdom at the forefront

So we're in a state of affairs where, after the Full Economic Costing revolution - and it is a existent revolution - that the university research alkali will be sustainable. We will be able to keep the film editing edge. And then we'll be able to begin growing our programme again.

But the state of affairs we're in now is that we are having to do some economies. And let's not exaggerate the size of the economic systems - it's £30m a twelvemonth on a £400m programme. We have got to do some economic systems in the short term in order to set the research on a sustainable footing in the long-term.

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PR: There have been come up unfavorable judgment that in trying to fund some of the more than than applied scientific discipline programs with, perhaps, more potentiality economical benefit, you are cutting basic research which feeds into and back ups those applied areas. Are any of that unfavorable judgment justified?

KM: I believe there is a cardinal misunderstanding there. We're not cutting pure research in order to make applied research. Everything we make have a very high "blue skies" content - it's in the nature of what we do. This is not the issue at all. Quite the contrary. The issue is simply to set the research alkali on a sustainable basis.

Our line is we necessitate to make more than than than research, more pure research, more cardinal research, because that's where the existent progresses come up and then they feed into the economic system on timescales that tin be quite short, but is often very long. And we necessitate to recognise that there's that spectrum of response as well.

The United Kingdom have now been reinstated as a full member of Gemini

But what we necessitate to make differently is, first of all, we must not halt men of science from doing pure research. We make not desire to turn men of science into salesmen. Quite the contrary. We desire to go forth men of science doing what they make best, which is the research.

But we must set in chemical mechanisms to capture that research and capture the thoughts - and there are many of those that we are not using - to capture those much more than effectively, so that we can profit the economy. And if we can profit the economy, we can afford to put more than in research, so everybody wins.

PR: I wanted to inquire about the Twin telescopes. Some perceivers have got seen that as a spot of a flip-flop by STFC, where you were in and then you were out. What is the current position there?

KM: Again, we have got had a consistent line here. There have been some misunderstanding over Gemini. We have got never withdrawn, or indicated that we would retreat from Gemini. The issue with Twin is the re-equipment of the instrument alkali for Gemini. We are currently in Twin until 2012, but the new instruments don't come up online until 2014, 2015.

So we needed to have got a argument about whether we should pay for those instruments because if we're not going to remain in Twin beyond 2012 then clearly it's not reasonable to be paying for instrumentality that you don't use. But I believe this did Pb to a spot of a misunderstanding with our international partners. That is all very unfortunate. But it's all H2O under the span now, we've sorted that one out.

What I can state people is that there is no concealed docket here

These things make go on occasionally, and they're not at all unusual. But our line have been consistent. We make demand to understand how we're going to take our partnership with Twin into the future, or whether there are other things we necessitate to put in in footing of, for example, edifice Extremely Large Telescopes through the European Southern Observatory (Eso) route. We have got to define a scheme over the adjacent twelvemonth or so. And that volition be a forward-looking scheme which necessitates to be affordable.

Of course, there is no point in having a scheme that's not affordable. But we will be doing that and we will be talking to people about what the demands are: when make we necessitate a 30m telescope? and make we necessitate it sooner rather than later? And if we necessitate it sooner rather than later then we have got to halt doing something else in order to speed up the development of that. But these are difficult decisions, and determinations that we are determined to confront up to, because that's what our occupation is - to maintain the United Kingdom at the forefront.

PR: It must be unprecedented that the Royal Astronomic Society [council] expressed a deficiency of assurance in STFC's handling of the situation. What are you doing to reassure the scientific community and react to their unfavorable judgments of STFC decisions?

KM: Well Iodine believe the beginning of some of the unfavorable judgments is the fact that we are a new research council. We have got got a much wider remission than the predecessors to STFC and the uranology and atom physical science communities have been used to having - over the last 13 old age - with their ain research council in PParc (the Atom Physics and Astronomy Research Council). Now that activity is embedded in a bigger entity.

Press insurance about Jodrell Depository Financial Institution was "misinformed" said Prof Mason

I believe people were naturally leery of the motive for the amalgamation (PParc with CCLRC, Council for the Central Lab of the Research Councils) - whether that meant there was going to be a downplaying of uranology and atom physics. As a consequence of that, they've been very focused on every action we've taken.

What I can state people is that there is no concealed docket here. Atom physical science and uranology is incredibly important. We believe it is important. We will go on to force for that country of science, alongside our other wider responsibilities.

I believe one of the large advantages of the new research council with its broader alkali is that we can work the synergisms between research countries more effectively. Interdisciplinary research - that's where the large additions are. We've got to acquire people out of their siloes and thought in broader terms.

For example, the same engineering we necessitate to construct a very big telescope is the same type of optics we necessitate to possibly construct a feasible atomic merger generator that mightiness computer address the world's energy needs. That sort of engineering cross-talk between assorted countries is incredibly important. We necessitate to take advantage of that and that's what we're seeking to do.

PR: Why have the "flat difficult cash settlement" hit STFC so hard? Could anything have got been done differently - at a authorities departmental degree perhaps - to better things?

KM: The level hard cash in the research councils is something that is affecting all the research councils. The ground is that the new money - and there is tons of new money going into research - is going to do the research sustainable through Full Economic Costing. It particularly hits the STFC, perhaps, more than than some other research councils, because our programs are long-term.

We will acquire through these short-term difficulties - we have got a very healthy programme.

Other research councils can acquire by through just awarding fewer grants - by starting fewer new activities, because they be given to fund things on a short timescale. At STFC, our programs are long-term - permanent 15 or 20 old age in some cases. And the lone manner to get by with the erosive consequence of rising prices which cut downs the amount we can make is to halt things - and that's painful.

It's natural that people who are working on installations that demand to be discontinued acquire upset - I would if I was them. So some of the reaction is, perhaps, understandable. But we are where we have got a finite budget. We have got to utilize it in the most effectual manner and we can't monetary fund everything. We have got many more than new thoughts than we can possibly ever fund.

PR: There have got been recent studies in the mass media that Jodrell Depository Financial Institution in Cheshire could be threatened by cuts to its programmes. Can you reassure people that it will remain open?

KM: Firstly, whether Jodrell Depository Financial Institution remains unfastened is a substance for Manchester University not us, because we don't ain it. The issue that have been discussed in the press, particularly, goes around around support of eMerlin. We had some advice from an independent grouping of men of science which rated eMerlin as being in the less precedence category.

But when we released that prioritisation, we set a rider on it saying that the STFC council recognised that there were wider strategical issues involved here. And this is the case. One of the other things in our prioritisation is the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which is the hereafter of radiocommunication astronomy. That is also run out of Jodrell Depository Financial Institution and is of the very peak precedence for us. It's something where the United Kingdom can be the human race leader.

Some uranologists believe their field is not being rewarded properly

We are already leading that undertaking out of Jodrell Depository Financial Institution in a European context. We can take a human race Pb in that, provided we put in it soon. And the issue with eMerlin is really the fact that that programme is running respective old age late and it intends that if we go on to back up that at the current level, we might not be able to begin our activities in the Square Kilometer Array at an opportune clip to reserve the lead.

Now, that doesn't intend we're not going to monetary fund eMerlin or fund Square Kilometer Array. But we have got to believe these things through. We have got to speak to the University of Manchester about how we acquire to where we necessitate to be with both of these projects. And as I said on a former occasion, the fad in the fourth estate about Jodrell Depository Financial Institution have been very misinformed in many ways.

Reports of Jodrell Bank's death are overly exaggerated, certainly. That's not in our head at all. We always have got to do difficult choices. We have got a long-term goal, which is the Square Kilometer Array, and we necessitate to understand how to acquire there. eMerlin is portion of the nerve pathway for getting there. But the charge per unit at which we put in eMerlin, the charge per unit at which we can put in the Square Kilometer Array - those are things we have got to find very carefully and very sensitively if we are going to acquire to where we desire to be.

PR: The caput of the Cockroft Institute (the UK's new accelerator pedal scientific discipline centre) recently said Daresbury Laboratory, also in Cheshire, could fold if certain programs there are cut. What would you state to people about the hereafter of those two sites?

KM: Daresbury is one of our flagship scientific discipline and invention campuses. And the cardinal thing is: scientific discipline and innovation. They are both important. Daresbury have been going through a low recently because of the closing of the Synchrotron Radiation Beginning (SRS). The new Synchrotron Radiation Beginning (Diamond) have been built at Harwell (Oxfordshire), which was a determination made many old age ago.

But it is only now we are getting to the point where strontiums actually folds and clearly that causes some jobs - some distress. We're having to do some people redundant as a result. But the hereafter of Daresbury is something we're working very difficult to secure. Our vision for Daresbury is a scientific discipline alkali which is much broader than one based just on synchrotron sources. That's what we're working towards and we'll be making proclamations in the adjacent few calendar months to set meat on those bones.

But I'm unclutter in my head that Daresbury is already a very successful site. We were there with (science minister) Ian Pearson (on 3 April), gap a new invention Centre and the bombilation around it was just unbelievable - very, very positive. Daresbury is going places, scientifically as well as on the invention front. It will be one of our flagships. We're pushing it as difficult as we can. It will be a antic topographic point to be.

PR: Lastly, what's your forecast for United Kingdom atom physical science and uranology over coming years?

KM: With the coming of Full Economic Costing, there's actually a batch more money going into United Kingdom physical science and uranology - into the university system - than there was a few old age ago. And it is creating a sustainable alkali which will stand up us in good position for the future. It's very of import and I'm going to maintain pushing it.

We will acquire through these short-term difficulties - we have got a very healthy programme. We have got new installations coming online yearly. We have got Alma (the Atacama Large Millimeter Array) coming online. I just got a message from our people in Aloha State a couple of years ago that the Aqualung 2 photographic camera is now being put option into the JCMT (James Clerk Maxwell Telescope) dome.

This is a world-leading technology that volition maintain the United Kingdom at the head of sub-millimetre astronomy. It's incredibly exciting. There are tons and tons of things to look forward to and I'm incredibly enthusiastic about it.

Have your say on this issue. Are uranology and physical science in the United Kingdom being put option on a sustainable footing for the future, or is harm being done now that volition be difficult to mend in the future? Read the remarks also of Sheffield University's , who have been one of the most vocal people on this story.

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