10 February 2026

Re Planned funding cuts to astronomy and space science research.

Dear Mr Rhodes,

I am writing as your constituent in Ruchill regarding STFC’s proposed cuts to UK astronomy funding, which threaten world-leading research capacity here in Glasgow North.

I am a Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research, and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. My research focuses on analysing and understanding black holes through gravitational wave detections. I have led ongoing analyses of these events throughout the field’s development. I have been part of this field since its inception: I began my PhD on the day the first gravitational wave was detected in September 2015, and have since contributed to building the UK’s leadership in this new area of astronomy.

Astronomy research in the UK is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). As someone whose entire research career has been enabled by STFC funding, I can speak directly to what these cuts will destroy. STFC has instructed UK astronomy research groups, including Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research, to plan for funding cuts of up to sixty percent. These cuts would be catastrophic. The Institute employs researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students whose salaries depend on STFC grants. A sixty percent reduction means redundancies, abandoned projects, and the dismantling of research programmes that have taken decades to build. However, this is not about preserving individual careers. It is about preventing the loss of research capacity that cannot be quickly rebuilt. These are high-skilled positions in Glasgow North that contribute to the local economy and demonstrate the value of public investment in Scotland’s research capacity.

Unlike other research councils, STFC science grant funding competes directly with facility costs and international subscriptions, meaning astronomy bears the burden of rising energy prices and exchange rate changes, a structural flaw that has plagued STFC since its creation. This leads to situations such as the present: cutting productive programmes to cover operational overruns.

The University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research, here in Glasgow North, is home to one of the world’s leading gravitational wave research groups. Decades of sustained STFC funding built this capacity: the infrastructure, the expertise, and the international partnerships that put Glasgow at the centre of a scientific revolution. Our researchers lead major international collaborations. The precision measurement technology developed in your constituency—innovations driven by the challenge of detecting gravitational waves—has applications far beyond astronomy, from medical imaging to industrial sensing. This is exactly the kind of advanced research and development capacity the UK needs to maintain competitive advantage.

The UK ranks fourth globally in astronomy research citations, a position these cuts will destroy. Decades of investment built this capability. These cuts discard that investment and cede competitive advantage to countries that recognize the economic value of research leadership. Glasgow’s strength in this field is an asset to both Scotland and the UK; cutting funding undermines the case for maintaining research excellence across all UK nations.

These achievements were not inevitable. They required long-term investment in curiosity-driven research, the kind STFC has provided for decades. The proposed cuts would dismantle infrastructure that has taken a generation to build. World-leading research groups cannot be mothballed and restarted—the international talent will move to countries that fund this work, and they will not return.

Astronomy has a proven track record of inspiring the next generation into STEM careers. The young person who gazes through a telescope or learns about gravitational waves often becomes the engineer, the data scientist, or the medical physicist: driving innovation across the economy. Cuts to curiosity-driven science don’t just end research projects—they close the pipeline that produces the highly skilled workforce the UK economy depends upon. In an era where technological capacity determines national competitiveness, we cannot afford to dismantle the very systems that inspire and train the talent we need.

Curiosity-driven research represents one of humanity’s defining characteristics: the drive to understand our place in the Universe. Walking through Ruchill Park on a rare cloudless night, struck by the wonder of light that has travelled across space for hundreds or thousands of years, is to feel the same impulse that motivates the research we conduct in Glasgow. A society that supports this kind of inquiry affirms something fundamental about what we value beyond immediate economic return. This is not a luxury: it is part of what makes a society worth building.

If you would like to know more about the work which we’re doing, here in the constituency, to change our understanding of the Universe, I would be more than happy to provide more information. I urge you to oppose these cuts and to use your position to lobby ministers to reverse this disastrous course. These cuts represent poor fiscal stewardship, discarding decades of productive investment to cover unrelated budget pressures, and will be catastrophic to both UK research and our international reputation.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Williams