A MAJOR scientific project that would help explain how the universe was created is likely to be abandoned because state funding has been withdrawn.
Astronomers at Cardiff University, together with others from Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester, have spent five years working on the Clover Project, which would use two highly sophisticated telescopes to track gravitational waves from the aftermath of the Big Bang.
The data recorder for the telescopes has been built in a laboratory at the university’s department of physics and astronomy. It was being prepared for transportation to the Atacama Desert in Chile when news of the funding withdrawal was announced by the UK Government’s Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Professor Peter Coles of Cardiff University said: “Everyone here is extremely disappointed at the STFC’s decision to halt the funding. This is a very significant project which I believe would deserve a Nobel prize.
“It’s too important simply to abandon, and we hope that even at this late stage it will be possible to secure funding from another source. Up until now it has been a project entirely directed from the UK, and if another funder comes forward, from America for example, it is unlikely they would be happy for it to be run from here.
“Those involved feel that if Clover is abandoned, they will have wasted five years.”
Prof Coles said withdrawing funding from such a prestigious project sent out an extremely depressing message to young scientists.
“If Britain wants to be taken seriously as a scientific nation, it needs to be supporting projects of this kind. I knew that the STFC was in financial difficulties, but I did not expect it to withdraw funding from Clover.
“There seems to be a tendency to back applied science research at the expense of pure science research. But what those making these decisions should realise is that young scientists at the start of their careers often cut their teeth on pure science before going into the applied field.” Prof Coles said the cost of Clover had increased largely because of a need to change its operational location from Antarctica to Chile.
A spokeswoman for STFC, which in December 2007 announced an £80m budget shortfall in its funding from the UK Government, said: “Due to an increase in the cost to completion of the Clover Project, it was referred to the STFC Council.
“While the council was assured that the science to be addressed by Clover remained first rate, the additional funding needed could not be made available. Council therefore decided that STFC’s commitment to Clover should be cancelled.”
The spokeswoman added: “Clover was originally approved by a predecessor body to STFC in 2004 at a cost of £4.78m. In 2007 an independent review put the expected cost to completion of a descoped (reduced scope) project at £5.6m. Following two reviews that year, STFC put in additional project monitoring and project management support, but given the high scientific priority of the project decided to continue with it.
“In 2008 a further review concluded that the cost to completion including contingency had risen to £7.54m. At that point it was decided to take the project back to the STFC Council for a decision on continuation or cancellation.”