Open letter of support
from industry against cuts to
Particle, Astro and Nuclear physics

With the letter below, we, former members of the academic scientific community now working in industry, are reacting to the proposed cuts to Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics (PPAN) science in the UK Research and Innovation's budget allocations for the 2026-2030 Spending Review period.
On 28th January, a letter was circulated to the PPAN community from Michele Dougherty, executive chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, announcing a reprioritisation of the PPAN programme which would involve funding being cut of around 30%. This followed, and is additional to, decisions to withdraw infrastructure funding from the LHCb upgrade and EIC projects. Individual projects within PPAN have been asked to submit proformas indicating the impact of cuts at 20%, 40% and 60% and the point at which the project would become unviable.
The open letter of response and list of signatories are printed below. Individuals who wish to support this initiative may add their name as a signatory by completing the form below. This letter will be sent to Lord Patrick Vallance (Minister of State for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear), Liz Kendall (Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology), Dame Chi Onwurah MP (Chair of the UK House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee), and Prof. Sir Ian Chapman (CEO of UKRI).

    Open Letter

    Signature Count:000

As physics PhDs and ex-academics working in industry, we signatories are concerned about the scale of proposed cuts to Particle Physics, Astro, and Nuclear (PPAN) physics. Major scientific projects and facilities across particle and nuclear physics, astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology are at risk; theory groups and high-performance computing clusters supporting these activities are being crippled; moreover, the UK’s reputation as a reliable partner for flagship international projects could be irreversibly harmed. This sudden change comes despite an overall increase in science funding by UKRI, reflecting a structural shift away from curiosity-driven research.

These significant reductions will not only eviscerate world-leading programmes of fundamental physics and astronomy, but also damage the pipeline of intellectual capital supplying the UK economy. Curiosity-driven research in PPAN science is vital for attracting and training a highly technical workforce and for inspiring young minds into STEM subjects. These PhD graduates, early-career researchers, technicians, theorists, and software and hardware engineers go on to deploy their valuable skills in a variety of industries. Reducing funding for blue-sky research will therefore have knock-on consequences for maintaining a critical mass of scientific talent in the UK. In the short term, it will force young academics, often trained in the UK, to move abroad to pursue their career; in the longer term, it will weaken the flow of highly-qualified scientists going into industry.

Studies are clear about the positive returns on investment in fundamental science and their practical benefits to society. Money invested in blue-sky research not only supports UK industry through the development of sophisticated technology and large facilities; the return on investment can also manifest itself in myriad unforeseen ways. The open World Wide Web internet standard, without which the large language models of AI companies would not be possible, was invented at CERN to address the information-sharing needs of large scientific collaborations. More directly, medical imaging technology and new methods for probing molecular structure were spun off from advances in particle physics.

Whether directly or indirectly, the tree of technology grows unpredictably from the fertile soil of fundamental science. Starving the roots to grow the tree will not enable the ecosystem to flourish.

We urge the UK government to reconsider such drastic action. Maintaining scientific excellence and international leadership in curiosity-driven research is symbiotic with the needs of industry and an integral part of delivering improvements to our everyday lives.

127 signees

First 50 signatories (Full List Accessible Here)


Dr Charles Badger, Faculty AI, Data Scientist
Dr Davide Gualdi, Boston Consulting Group, Lead Data Scientist
John Heal, TransitionZero, Principle Data Engineer
Dr Joe O'Connor, TransitionZero, Head of Machine Learning
Isabella Soldner-Rembold, TZ, Tech Lead
Will Turner, UNDO Carbon, Head of Data Science
Cayo Costa Sobral, The Stepstone Group, Machine Learning Engineer
Dr Nick Barlow, The Alan Turing Institute, Lead Research Software Engineer
Prof. Lee Thompson, Geoptic Infrastructure Investigations, Technical Director
Dr Araf Haque, Rolls-Royce, Quantum computing specialist
Graham Jackson, Contractor, Data engineer
Dr Marc Kelly, The Good Penguin, Engineering Manager
Dr Baker, Rolls-Royce Digital, Software Specialist
Dr Liam Raynard, Travel Counsellors, Lead Data Engineer
Dr William Fawcett, Trillium Technologies, Lead Research Engineer
Dr Jonathan Burt, MathWorks, Senior Software Engineer
Dr Michael Russell, Castleton Commodities International, Head of European Data Science
Dr Alexander Amaral-Rogers, Ministry of Defence, Military Operational Analyst
Sarah-Jane Lonsdale, Southern Scientific Ltd, Nuclear and Industrial Sector Manager
Fiona Poda, Salience Labs, Photonics Characterisation Engineer
Dr Joshua Horswill, Greenpixie, Data Scientist
Dr Kenny Wong, Citadel, Quant Researcher
Dr Donal Hill, UEFA, Data Scientist
Dr Suzy Jones, Astrazeneca, Associate principal scientist
Dr Greig Cowan, NatWest Group, Head of AI and Data Science
Dr Sarah Gibson, E.On Next, Senior Platform Engineer
Laura Sinclair, St James's Hospital, Senior medical physicist
Dr Alexander Shires, Google, AI Engineer
Jack Medley, Gambit, Research Chief Research Officer
Dr Millard, Millennium Capital, Quant Technical Lead
Professor Emma Tobin, UCL, Vice Dean (Research) and Professor, MAPS Faculty
Dr Alec Barns-Graham, Visa, Senior staff engineer
Dr Calum Macdonald, Health Data Research UK, Principal Full Stack Engineer
Dr Elliott Reid, Scott Logic Ltd, Senior Software Engineer
Dr Peter Tudor, Oxa Senior, software engineer
Matt Lewis, AmberWolf, Director of Advanced Cybersecurity Services
Dr Robert Frazier, EnterpriseDB, Staff Software Engineer
Dr Rizwaan Mohammed, Statera Energy, Quant Researcher
Dr Stephen Farry, Evri, Senior Data Scientist
James Mylroie-Smith, Pickles, Head of AI Labs
Dr Arnab Basu, Kromek Group plc, CEO
Dr Richard Steward, Contractor Software, Engineering Consultant
Dr Trevor Walker, Thin Metal Films Ltd, Techincal Director
Dr Jason Ward, Independent, Independent Consultant, Data & AI
Serena Campbell, PwC, Data Scientist
Dr Adam Higgins, Atmospheric AI, Founding Engineer
Mark Corrigan, Optical Fiber Packaging Ltd, EMEA sales and applications manager
Dr. Oliver Fischer, Endress+Hauser, Patent Expert
Dr Sarah Baker, uhcw, senior clinical scientist

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