In January 2026, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announced budget cuts of up to 60% to the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Scientists – particularly physicists – have been speaking out against the cuts across the UK.
In July 2026, Roar interviewed one of the forerunners in the fight for early careers physicists: King’s College London’s very own Dr Lucien Heurtier. His open letter, highlighting how important physics research is and how damaging the cuts would be, was signed by almost 1200 early careers researchers.
“Many of the technologies that now underpin the UK economy — spanning computing, communications, medical imaging, advanced materials, artificial intelligence (AI), and emerging quantum technologies — originated in fundamental research”
From the Early Career Researchers Response to UKRI Investment Approach
Roar: Can you tell our readers a little bit about the funding crisis facing researchers at the moment – whom does it affect and how?
Lucien: The STFC has been given a flat budget from UKRI and therefore if prices increase, the number of people researchers and projects will be cut.
L: There were big announcements at the beginning of the year, saying we might cut you between 20 and 60%, and this has been scaring the whole community, because those cuts would have been absolutely destroying the future of research.
R: What was the research community’s reaction?
L: There has been a strong reaction from the community. There are many initiatives from the scientific community to go and talk to MPs in parliaments, from the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Physics.
R: What is the purpose of the open letter that has been going around?
L: This letter from early career researchers came from [Dr] Simon Williams and me. He’s the one who started drafting the letter in the first place. Last year, there [were] almost zero postdoc positions in the UK for theorists. Simon drafted this letter and contacted me.
L: We put out this letter hoping to get a few signatures but it was so dramatic that we collected (I think) 1200 signatures from Physics postdocs and PhD teams.
“I think we got pretty much everybody in the country who was doing a PhD or a postdoc”
Dr Lucien Heurtier, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Physics at King’s College London
R: How did UKRI respond?
L: We were invited to participate in a few different meetings, one with Ian Chapman and Michele Dougherty, the CEO of UKRI and the Head of the STFC.
L: The SITC (Science, Innovation and Technology Committee) has been very much on our side during this time and the reaction from early career researchers had a big impact because postdocs in the UK are now going elsewhere. This is speaking to politicians.
L: When you’re speaking to politicians, not all of them will be into science or research. But I think even people who don’t do science are very fascinated by it. People know that it’s important, that it’s fascinating, that it’s the future, and people understand that we need science for a civilization to progress.
L: For instance, CERN and the Vera Rubin Observatory are big, international, world-leading collaborations, so the [scientific] leadership of the UK is going to suffer from those cuts. The UK have been one of the most important funders so far, but has started disengaging from funding some of the collaboration there.
R: Do you think these cuts reflect the general public’s curiosity about science? Particularly in a time of declining literacy and numeracy in the UK?
L: I think if you ask most people, everybody is extremely curious about phenomenal things.
“I think it reflects a desire from the government to extract [and] to commercialise research rather than investing on long-term research projects”
Dr Lucien Heurtier, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Physics at King’s College London
L: All this money that has been given to UKRI is going to go to quantum and AI, which are also very important. But we don’t know how much money is going to go to blue sky research – cognitive driven research.
L: From the official communication, there is no good sign that curiosity-driven research is actually being protected. This is something that is overlooked by UKRI and politicians.
R: What change do you realistically hope to see in the coming years?
L: There is an increased budget for the whole UKRI, so people in research should not be hurt in the process. All of this money that goes into AI and quantum, some of that money should be funding our research. We need to make sure that we continue going forward, not going backward.
L: If the goal of the UK is to stop doing fundamental research, the government and UKRI should be honest about it.
“You cannot have a narrative which says we want more physics for this country and actually cut 40% of the physicists”
Dr Lucien Heurtier, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Physics at King’s College London
R: Do you think the cuts would also hurt people, industries outside of physics or quantum?
L: I’m thinking a lot of medical research; medical equipment is built through physics.
L: [Dr] Tevong You at King’s has also been leading what we call the industry letter, which is a letter signed by more than 300 people who currently work in the industry. If you look at their profiles, those people are working in military, biology and medicine.
At the time Roar conducted this interview, the STFC had just released its first priorities when creating budgets.
The 15% cut from the 2025/2026 year will not be reversed and, in order to not cut postdoc positions any further, national labs are being cut by 58%, multidisciplinary facilities will be cut by 15% and the Particle Physics department and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre will be cut by 20%.
The UK’s largest telescope was shut down in late July.
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