Chemistry in fine health – but definitely room for improvement
4 Sep 2009 by Evoluted New Media
An international review of chemistry research in the UK has found that despite overall health being good, there are potentially dangerous gaps in the intellectual core of the discipline.
An international review of chemistry research in the UK has found that despite overall health being good, there are potentially dangerous gaps in the intellectual core of the discipline.
 |
| Credit: Joe Sullivan |
The international review panel - consisting of 18 academics and industrialists -found the overall health of chemistry research in the UK to be good and noted that there are significant changes of research emphasis across the UK since the last International Review.
There are pockets of truly outstanding world-class work going on says the report, and numerous examples of very well-supported research groups. The community is aggressively utilising all of the funding streams available through the Research Councils, charities, Europe and industry and, importantly, this top level research is not confined to just one location. There are excellent examples of international collaboration too say the panel, especially via EU programmes and a number of good examples of cooperation with industry.
It isn’t all good new however. Despite the encouraging finding that the age distribution in many departments is such that chemistry is well-positioned to produce a new generation of leaders - there are potentially dangerous gaps in the intellectual core of the discipline that may be related to lack of investment by the Research Councils.
Perhaps even more worryingly - although there are some notable exceptions - there is a perception that overall, UK Chemistry lacks some ambition.
The panel of the report think that this is due to the fact that support for early career researchers and established researchers is not geared to enable adventurous research. They claim that to counter this, an infrastructure will need to be put in place with a strategic vision, but that currently no overarching plan is evident, locally, regionally or nationally.
