Chris McDonald’s ‘unrelenting’ science focus raises concerns

The pledge by the UK’s new science minister to adopt an “unrelenting focus” on science has prompted concern and confusion.

The alarm emerged after Chris McDonald told vice-chancellors at the Universities UK conference on 10 September that, as the science minister, he will be “making the case for science unrelentingly…There is a secretary of state for DCMS [the Department for Culture, Media and Sport], and she will do the same in the arts.”

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said the remark “concerns me very deeply. It was very odd.” He noted that all of McDonald’s recent predecessors “have stressed that they represent ‘science’ in the broadest sense of the term: in other words, representing knowledge in all areas”.

As the minister for science in the newly formed Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), McDonald has responsibility for the country’s entire research and development system, including social sciences and the arts and the humanities.

Some observers are wondering if McDonald, who was appointed to the role on 23 July, was unaware of the full extent of his portfolio. Hillman said: “I had hoped it was all a slip of the tongue, but it seemed premeditated and was repeated. I have spoken to various people who share my surprise.”

Posting on Bluesky, Margot Finn, chair in modern British history at UCL, described McDonald’s comments as “quite alarming”. She said: “The question is, who briefed him? Good ministers require good briefing by civil servants and/or [special advisers]. There’s been a lapse...in that respect by the looks of it.”

James Wilsdon, director of the Research-on-Research Institute, said, also on Bluesky: “It’s staggering that he’s managed several weeks in the job without realising the scope of his own responsibilities [and] that of the public research funding system.”

When asked directly about support for the arts and humanities after his speech, McDonald said there was not a “binary choice” between those subjects and STEM subjects.

Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy, told THE that the UK was a “world leader” in the humanities, arts and social sciences, which are “essential for the wider scientific enterprise. We value our strong relationship with colleagues at BIST and look forward to working with the minister to make sure knowledge from across the humanities, arts and social sciences supports the government’s ambitions.”

At the UUK event, McDonald also said that he wants to see the research councils give out “fewer, longer awards” and “back a smaller number of bigger, longer-term investments”. His comments mirror an idea that the chief executive of UK Research and Innovation, Ian Chapman, has previously floated.

Peter Mandler, professor of modern cultural history at the University of Cambridge, suggested that this could negatively impact the arts and humanities, “where small sums of money covering a short span of time are often the most fruitful”.

On X, Colin Bingle, emeritus professor of respiratory cell and molecular biology at the University of Sheffield, said: “The days of principal investigator-led research grants are numbered, and it looks like Universities UK institutions will pretty much have to ditch most of their research. How will UKRI deal with limited, faster (lighter touch?) reviewing? Won’t this just consolidate the ‘golden triangle’?”

Bingle was responding to McDonald’s remark that UKRI programme teams “will have more discretion about what goes forward and how it’s commissioned, using their subject knowledge, rather than sending everything through the full [peer review] machine”.

On McDonald’s comments about his science focus, Mandler said: “If it wasn’t just a slip arising from this common confusion [about the scope of the “science” ministerial brief] but does indicate a shift in emphasis away from arts and humanities, we should be told in no uncertain terms, rather than having to read the tea leaves. Are they [really] signalling a concentration of funding and strategic emphasis even further on STEM?”

frances.jones@timeshighereducation.com