Sorry, I should say Department for Health rather than NHS for that £0.9bn figure.

On 7 October 2014 17:12, Imran Khan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

What an interesting question, Dom. My short answer is yes, it is true.

Am partly going off memory from my CaSE days here, but if you look at the Government SET statistics 

(https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/science-engineering-and-technology-statistics-2013 for latest ones)

.. and then click on (for instance) table 2.2, you get a breakdown of real-terms govt R&D spending up until 2011-12.

You'll find that the MoD spends £1.3bn on R&D - which is way ahead of the next two next biggest spenders, the NHS (£0.9bn) and EPSRC (£0.8bn). The Wellcome Trust weighs in at around £0.6bn a year, in case you were interested.

But the MoD breaks their R&D spend down into.. well, R and D. I can't remember what the specific definitions were but they're roughly what you'd expect, and it depends on whether you'd count a lot of what the MoD refers to as 'development' as sci/eng spend. I would, but some wouldn't.

Sadly the government no longer collates the industrial R&D scoreboard, but the last time it was published (2010) no companies came close to that level of R&D spend (http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101208170217/http://www.innovation.gov.uk/rd_scoreboard/downloads/2010_RD_Scoreboard_data.pdf)

Also, I'm not sure how much double-counting might go on. Imagine an MoD research or dev contract awarded to Rolls Royce and conducted in conjunction with, say, Aston university - how does that get counted? No idea.

But while we're on interesting stats, here's my favourite one, courtesy of (who else), Scienceogram - a single nation spent three times more on the Iraq war than the entire world put together spent on health research in the three decades preceding the same war. http://scienceogram.org/in-depth/big-science/

On 7 October 2014 16:48, Dominic McDonald <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi all

 

I have a question that I am struggling to find an answer for…

 

I was once told that the MOD was the single largest funder of science/engineering research in the UK. As factoids go, it’s a beauty, but I am struggling to find out the extent to which it is actually true…

 

Now I don’t want to gum up everyone’s inboxes with a debate on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing – each of us will have her/his own opinion - but I would like to at least know whether it IS a thing. So any evidence-based advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Dom

 

Dom McDonald
Programme Manager, Outreach
Royal Society of Chemistry
Thomas Graham House,
Science Park, Milton Road
Cambridge, CB4 0WF, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 432249

Mob: +44 (0) 7788 710487

 

DISCLAIMER:

This communication (including any attachments) is intended for the use of the addressee only and may contain confidential, privileged or copyright material. It may not be relied upon or disclosed to any other person without the consent of the RSC. If you have received it in error, please contact us immediately. Any advice given by the RSC has been carefully formulated but is necessarily based on the information available, and the RSC cannot be held responsible for accuracy or completeness. In this respect, the RSC owes no duty of care and shall not be liable for any resulting damage or loss. The RSC acknowledges that a disclaimer cannot restrict liability at law for personal injury or death arising through a finding of negligence. The RSC does not warrant that its emails or attachments are Virus-free: Please rely on your own screening. The Royal Society of Chemistry is a charity, registered in England and Wales, number 207890 - Registered office: Thomas Graham House, Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0WF

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System on behalf of
the British Science Association (http://www.britishscienceassociation.org)
______________________________________________________________________

**********************************************************************

Commands - send an email (any subject) to [log in to unmask] with one of the following messages (ignoring text in brackets)

• set psci-com nomail (to stop receiving messages while on holiday) • set psci-com mail (to resume getting messages) • signoff psci-com (to leave the list) • Subscribe here https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com

Contact list owner at [log in to unmask] Small print and JISCMail acceptable use policy https://sites.google.com/site/pscicomjiscmail/the-small-print

**********************************************************************

--

Imran Khan
Chief Executive
British Science Association
165 Queen's Gate
London. SW7 5HD

t: +44 (0)20 7019 4926 m: +44 (0)7967 831 333 tw: @imrankhan

web: www.britishscienceassociation.org

PA: [log in to unmask]

--

Imran Khan
Chief Executive
British Science Association
165 Queen's Gate
London. SW7 5HD

t: +44 (0)20 7019 4926 m: +44 (0)7967 831 333 tw: @imrankhan

web: www.britishscienceassociation.org

PA: [log in to unmask]