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Scientific Research

Volume 174: debated on Wednesday 13 June 1990

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To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) whether he intends to implement the recommendation of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils that higher education institutes should receive an extra £259 million for additional equipment to support current scientific research and an extra £200 million for equipment to initiate new scientific research;(2) what are his latest estimates of the cost of additional equipment necessary for higher education institutes to

(a) support current levels of scientific research and (b) initiate new scientific research.

The "Survey of Academic Research Equipment in the United Kingdom" commissioned by the Advisory Board for the Research Councils and published in November 1989 identified the equipment needs of universities and polytechnics. The advice which the A BRC offered my right hon. Friend last year on the Government's expenditure plans for the science budget took into account these needs.The increases to the science budget announced on 15 November included substantial provision for expenditure on equipment in higher education institutions via the science budget, the UFC and the PCFC.The funding requirements for the science base, including equipment needs, will of course be reviewed again in this year's survey in the usual way.