This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Britain's physics community is reeling from a "disastrous" day of funding cuts that will force scientists to withdraw from major resarch facilities and see PhD studentships fall by a quarter.

Space missions and projects across astronomy, nuclear and particle physics are being cancelled to save at least £115m, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said today.

Fellowships and student grants for PhD projects will be cut by 25% from next year. The announcement has appalled senior physicists who warn the cuts threaten Britain's future as a leading player in science.

Professor Mark Lancaster, head of particle physics at University College London, said: "A lost generation of students will be created who are denied the opportunity to do a PhD and cutting-edge science."

The cuts come 10 months after the prime minister pledged to ringfence the science budget from savings required in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Particle physicists called the cuts a "shameful waste" of a decade's investment in new facilities, many of which have only recently opened for business.

British scientists will pull out of three facilities, including the European X-ray laser project (XFEL), the Photon Science Institute and the New Light Source (NLS). Last year, Professor Keith Mason, the chief executive of the STFC, said the NLS gave Britain the opportunity to "win European leadership" in the field of intense laser research.

In February, Gordon Brown delivered his first speech on science in Oxford and stated: "The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in science but to build more vigorously for the future."

The latest round of cuts suggest the ringfence was not as robust as scientists hoped. Professor Brian Foster, head of particle physics at Oxford University, said: "These cuts give the lie to those fine words. This is a sad day for British science: the prime minister should hang his head in shame."

Over the next five years, British scientists will withdraw from the Alice experiment to crash heavy ions together at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva.

British involvement in several space missions, including the Cassini probe which is investigating Saturn and its moons; the Venus Express orbiter and the SOHO mission to study the sun will also be phased out.

Professor Andy Fabian, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, said:

"With these cuts UK-based researchers will struggle to retain their leading position in astronomy and space science."

Nuclear physics is facing a 52% cut in funding that will force British scientists to withdraw from international projects and cancel seven that were planned for the future.

"These out-of-proportion cuts have the potential to kill off the UK skills base in nuclear physics," said Professor Paddy Regan at the University of Surrey.

"How this can be happening at a time of discussions of nuclear new build is incredible. Where does the STFC think the trained manpower that the UK in nuclear physics and associated instrumentation and measurement is going to come from?"

The cuts were announced in an STFC review that sets out a £2.4bn five-year plan for British physics and related research.

"The council of STFC has approved an affordable, robust and sustainable programme. This has involved tough choices affecting the entire programme including a managed withdrawal from some areas," said Professor Michael Sterling, the STFC chairman.