Original version

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

Science in Action

Science In Action

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The BBC brings you all the week's science news.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Science In Action: Science when the funding dries up

Magazines & Reviews

Scorched-earth-CROP.jpg

15/07/2021 GMT

Science when the funding dries up

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Science when the funding dries up

The UK Government’s cap on Official Development Aid, and its consequences for science.

Roland speaks to researchers and research leaders affected by the UK Government’s cap on Official Development Aid about the consequences for international science collaborations

This week the UK parliament voted to accept the Government’s continued cap on Official Development Aid. This disappointed many researchers around the world, funded directly and indirectly through various scientific funding structures enabling international collaboration on some of the global challenges facing all of us. These funding mechanisms make for a small fraction of the overall amount, but they have been hit hard, with many projects closing altogether.

There had been hope amongst the scientific community that the cap – from 0.7% down to 0.5% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Income – might have been in place just for a year. But it seems like the criteria set to judge when the level of aid might rise again imply that it is unlikely to happen for several years at the earliest. 

What, asks Science in Action, does that mean to the world of scientific collaboration on such topics as climate change, contagious disease, and emergency planning?

Researchers Chris Trisos and Jenni Barclay, with journalist Robin Bisson of Research Professional News, update us on the story.

In Zambia, where covid testing remains scarce, a project run by Boston University’s Christopher Gill has been estimating the prevalence of covid in the capital Lusaka by taking nasal swab samples from the noses of around one in five of those recently deceased, in the morgue of a major hospital. Tantalisingly, his team have seen over the last few months a sharp rise in cases to the extent that in June, nearly 90 percent of the cadavers tested positive for covid. But as Chris describes, unrelated to the UK cuts, their funding has now run out, so where the graph leads from here we may not learn for a long time.

Presented by Roland Pease
Produced by Alex Mansfield.

(Image: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Science In Action

Science when the funding dries up

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service