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Objectives for Financial Year 2005/2006

The announced parliamentary grant-in-aid for 2005/2006 is £660,000 (Resource Funding) and £6,000 (Capital), substantially less than that required to maintain the present level of activity in the long term. The amount is the same in cash terms as in 2003/2004, and the very significant cut in the Observatory's projected grant-in-aid puts many of the medium to long-term aims and objectives of the Observatory at risk. In particular, because a high fraction of the Observatory's overall running costs is related to core items such as salaries and fixed costs such as heat, light, power, insurance etc., the announced funding for 2005/2006 will put severe strain on the Observatory's ability to maintain its planned programmes of research, outreach and public understanding of science for 2005 and beyond. Such treatment of a scientific institution which has demonstrated a decade of significantly improved performance flies in the face of Government policies that aim to increase spending on science and on programmes to encourage young people to consider careers in the traditional `hard' sciences.

The allocated funds will be directed towards achieving the following principal objectives during 2005/2006, namely to:

• maintain existing high-quality research programmes;

• obtain grants and additional external funding to support new research projects;

• strengthen the Observatory's research capability in solar system and stellar astrophysics in readiness for the next Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008; census date 31 October 2007);

• enhance the Observatory's use of and access to necessary research infrastructure, such as CosmoGrid, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), and the Northern Ireland Regional Area Network (NIRAN);

• widen access to the heritage material in its possession; and

• progress plans for a new Library, Archives and Historic Scientific Instruments Building.

The corresponding targets for these objectives, which together span the Observatory's principal areas of activity (research, education and public outreach, and heritage), are indicated in Table 2.

The key task for the year is to obtain a stable level of core funding and to obtain resources to secure the recruitment of additional research staff. This is to maintain current activity and to lay a strong foundation for the forthcoming Research Assessment Exercise (2002-2007), which has a census date 31 October 2007.