http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20846282

George does something useful shocker

Yes but I bet he wanted to privatise this funding as well. Don't give him credit for something that he probably tried to stop. Most of the research councils do very similar work yet they get little credit.

And quite a few of them have had their budgets slashed by yes you guessed it, Mr Osborne. I'd be willing to bet even with this award central government research spending has plummeted since this lot got in.

In many ways it symbolises the worst of government. Research council spending is primarily blue sky research which has little immediate pay off but opens up new avenues so these sorts of cuts are probably the worst of all.