The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has announced a three-year £1.9bn funding programme - saving 150 jobs in Swindon and securing the future of Joddrell Bank. The STFC has its HQ in Swindon and the money will be distributed from the town.
Jodrell Bank: a glimmer of hope? Ann Winterton, MP for Congleton, called on science minister Ian Pearson to support Jodrell Bank amid fears it will be forced to close. Mr Pearson again distanced the government from decisions about funding, saying they were "very much a matter for the Science and Technology Facilities Council. In accordance with the Haldane principles, it would be wrong for ministers to interfere with that process."
Jodrell Bank bosses are anxiously waiting for the results of their bid to save the world famous space centre. The observatorys 250ft-wide Grade One-listed Lovell Telescope faces closure under the Governments Science and Technology Funding Councils plans to cut £80m from space science and astronomy spending.
A group of physics students have launched their own campaign to try and protect the future of Jodrell Bank. Earlier this month it emerged that the future of the Cheshire observatory could be under threat because of plans to cut funding to one of its major projects. Now a group of students from the University of Manchester - of which Jodrell Bank is a part - have joined the battle to secure its future.
Last week we heard news of a threat facing Jodrell Bank. Local geeks and scientists have been in quiet uproar since then, and the petition started on the Downing Street website has gained nearly 3,000 signatures already.
For more than 50 years, it has scoured the vast depths of space for the invisible signatures of cosmic radiation but the Jodrell Bank radio telescope could be closed down in a drive to slash millions of pounds from Britain's physical sciences budget. Radio astronomers have been warned that the centrepiece of their observing network in the UK might have to be shut to save £2.7m a year. It is part of an effort to meet an unexpected £80m shortfall in the annual budget of the Government's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STSC).
I have always wanted to check Jodrell Bank. My generation, brought-up with black-and-white TV's account of the space race, soon became familiar with the image of this otherworldly device scrutinising the heavens on the news. It was a symbol of Britain's brief flirtation with the white heat of technology and sometimes I conspiratorially theorised it might have been faked by the Central Office of Information. Read more