On Monday 27th March 2023, Tom Whipple, Science Editor for The Times, covered the ‘broken promise’ made to those in the mathematics community on page 7 of the day’s printed edition of the newspaper.
The report covers the £300 million promised additional funding for the mathematical sciences, made by the former Chancellor in January 2020. The UK Government announced that it would be allocating the additional funding to “fund experimental and imaginative mathematical sciences research by the very best global talent over the next five years”. However, more than half of this funding is yet to materialise.
Sir Roger Penrose, Novel Laureate and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, commented that:
“The government keeps saying the right things about making the UK a STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] superpower. It is maths that will underpin that goal because it’s the mathematical sciences that drive all the innovations that the government likes to reference, such as AI and quantum computing. What we need to see now is action and funding.”
Sir Roger also highlighted the impending financial cuts to Mathematics Departments across the country, carrying the potential to create swathes of ‘maths deserts’, areas with no opportunities to study mathematics beyond A-Level, across the country. He said:
“We are seeing university maths departments at many institutions, including my own alma mater at Birkbeck, threatened, trimmed and even closed down.”
Last year, , James Maynard, the 2022 Fields Medalist, noted the mixed messages coming from the government on the place of mathematics within STEM:
“It sometimes feels like the government forgets about the M in STEM. To be a science superpower and to lead the world in AI and new technologies . . . we must foster and support the mathematical sciences.”
When asked for comment on the piece, The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said:
“We are already providing an additional £124 million funding for mathematical sciences, on top of up to £30 million a year for grants, fellowships and to support maths students."
This further suggests that the Mathematical Sciences will continue to be the victim of broken promises and mixed messages, placing the discipline at ever-increasing risk.
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