Some say that now is not the time to invest, but the bottom line is that the downturn is no time to slow down our investment in science but to build more vigorously for the future. And so we will not allow science to become a victim of the recession – but rather focus on developing it as a key element of our path to recovery.

– UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, February 27 2009

From 2010-11… a 10% reduction in support for future exploitation grants and a managed cessation of lower priority areas, 25% reduction in the number of new studentships and Fellowships…

…the programme includes the managed withdrawal from a number of projects and programmes including the Gemini telescopes, the NLS, and UKIRT.

- UK Science & Technologies Facility Council, December 15, 2009

The Joint Astronomy Centre, for whom I’ve been working for the past eight years, runs two telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The JAC is funded mostly by the UK’s Science & Technology Facilities Council. STFC funds 100% of UKIRT and 55% of JCMT (the other 45% is funded by Canada at 25% and the Netherlands at 20%).

The STFC has had a rather extreme funding crisis over the past couple of years, which has lead to many program prioritizations and studies and cuts. They had put off the majority of the cuts until now, as the funding crisis has come to a head. They need to somehow save £40 million for the 2010-2011 financial year.

They released their Science Programme Prioritisation today. Amongst the press release nonsense was a line about UKIRT:

the programme includes the managed withdrawal from… UKIRT.

There is no note about a timescale, but friends on the inside said STFC had initially stated a pullout date of April 2010 and have since backpedaled.

Obviously this comes as a huge blow to the Joint Astronomy Centre. If UKIRT is closed permanently and removed from Mauna Kea, numerous staff will lose their jobs. UK astronomers will lose access to one of the best infrared telescopes in the world. Hawaii’s economy will take a hit as staff members will likely leave the island, and astronomers from around the world will stop coming to Hawaii for observing runs, spending money while here.

This will probably not save STFC very much money as UKIRT’s budget had already been slashed to roughly £1 million per year, and STFC would have to pay a shedload of money to have UKIRT removed from Mauna Kea. Agreements in place state that the site would have to be restored to a pristine condition. Also, because the JAC runs two telescopes, a high number of staff support both telescopes. This staff would largely remain in place, which would increase the budget of JCMT by about 30%. This cost would undoubtedly be borne by STFC, as the two partner countries would most likely balk at having to clean up STFC’s mess for them.

It’s a decision that makes no scientific sense and makes very little financial sense. Then again, when have we ever expected anything else from STFC?