09 Feb 2024
Harpenden-based agricultural facility Rothamsted Research is not in the midst of a major funding crisis, says the facility, despite reports in the national press.
This week The Guardian newspaper published extracts from a letter from director Professor Angela Karp warning staff they will have to pause “non-essential” work, and faced a hiring pause and potential pay freezes.
The facility, which dates back to 1843, receives the majority of its funding directly from the government’s UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) department, in five-year cycles.
But The Guardian says for the past two cycles the institute’s funding has included no inflation costs, which means for several years the facility has been running at a loss. It also no longer benefits from funding from the EU post-Brexit.
The letter from Prof Kar said: “I feel that it is important for me to inform staff that, after a promising start, unfortunately our financial position weakened in the latter part of last year. Despite all our ongoing efforts, including excellent successes from many staff that we can be proud of, our grant targets won for the whole year were not as we had budgeted for.
“Whilst free reserves have been maintained, these still remain lower than we would like and highly susceptible to external factors, and we are currently considering how best to manage our operating model to put our longer-term future on a more secure footing.
“To some extent we have managed the challenges we faced during 2023 through rebalancing funds within the IAE envelope. However, the mitigation steps we have been taking cannot be relied on from now onwards and we do not have enough reserves that we can access immediately.”
But a statement from Rothamsted Research released on Thursday poured cold water on the rumours of an impending crisis.
It read: “We wish to correct the misleading article that appeared on The Guardian website this morning about our financial situation. Indeed, we are very disappointed that The Guardian did not contact us for clarification prior to publication.
“Rothamsted is a world class institute in sustainable agricultural science, delivering for the benefit of society in the UK and around the world. We are fully focussed on our scientific programme, generating impactful outcomes from our many research commitments, and remain very much ‘open for business’ for all our partners and collaborators.
“Our science is in a great place, having been exhaustively peer reviewed for the next five years of BBSRC funding. As an institute we are addressing fundamental issues of food security and valuing environmental services for a sustainable net zero future at national and global scales. As the longest serving and most renowned UK agricultural research facility we feel privileged to be part of such vital work.
“We are an independent institute supported to deliver our strategic science programmes by the BBSRC. We acknowledge the financial situation as challenging, as it is for many similar institutes and universities, and are working hard to implement necessary change as would be expected from any effective management team.”
Harpenden and Berkhamsted Parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems, Victoria Collins, responded to the news report: “Rothamsted Research is a vital institution we need to protect and support. Speaking to the Rothamsted team, they’re working to remain open for business and secure that research having been peer reviewed for the next five years of BBSRC funding.
“Clearly, however, our Government must do more to support and invest in our sciences. It’s also clear that research suffers when barriers, such as that of Brexit and the Government’s botched trade deal hinder collaboration. That’s why the Liberal Democrats campaigned for the UK to rejoin Horizon, the world’s biggest research and development funding project, as soon as possible.
“Research, such as that which takes place at Rothamsted is vital to our economy and our recovery from the crises we currently face.”
