• Question: does your particular field of research get money grants from the government?

    Asked by suzygeniusmiller to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 22 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      hi suzygeniusmiller – good name!
      yes the field of research i work in – i am testing a new type of spacecraft engine – does receive money from the geoverment. Currently the project i am working for, and my (not so big!!) salary is paid for a grant from the Euopean Comission. In my view this grant is justified – the research will hopefully get this novel type of thruster to the point where it is ready for commercial use.
      Also, although my research has a comercial use, i don’t believe that all research has to funded because it can directly lead to an economic benefit. Take fundamental physics research – this has little direct benefit to the economy, but the understanding that it grants us of the universe , and our place in it, is well worth spending the small amount of money that we do pay on it!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi Suzy
      We do, and in fact we rely heavily on government grants – through the Medical Research Council (MRC) – for our work. My lab currently has grants worth £1.5M from the MRC, which will support four researchers over a period of three years.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi Suzy. Yes, the government does support malaria research, through something called the Medical Research Council, which supports biomedical research in many areas. More money from malaria comes from charitable foundations though – I am supported by something called the Wellcome Trust, which is a UK charity, and the Bill Gates trust has been a huge supporter of malaria research world-wide.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      We do receive some money from the government, but a lot of the research we do in the lab is relevant to Autism, Alzheimer’s, and other psychiatric diseases, so we also get a lot of funding from charities that support research into these conditions.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Hi suzy, Cool name!
      Yes, some of our work is funded from the government and some of the money to do the work comes from companies. It is quite expensive to do any sort of science and the money needs to come from somewhere. But, the benefits far out weigh the cost of the science in most cases.

      Eoin

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