Duncan Sproul
Group leader at MRC Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh. Interdisciplinary research on disease #epigenetics. Part-time solo dad. Occasional music and climbing.
institute-genetics-cancer.ed.ac.uk/research/research-g…
- Quite a striking contrast with the situation emerging in the UK! Fundamental science at the Medical Research Council being suggested to be cut from £200 million to £113 million per year based on a @resprofnews.bsky.social article from yesterday.
- Even when the focus is on research with immediate industrial applications, many policymakers recognise that breakthroughs start with fundamental science. That's why Mario Draghi recommended doubling the ERC’s budget. ERC President spoke at @sciencebusiness.net Annual Conference earlier this week.
- Link to article (unfortunately only accessible for those whose institutes are subscribers): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
- So now we have it- not only the reduction from 12-13 to 3 grants from each board recommended for funding but the budget for applicant-led research to be reduced from £200 million to £113 million per year. This is appalling, Especially given all that is happening with medical research in the US.
- Medical Research Council ‘will fund fewer applicant-led grants’. Confirmation from deputy leader comes as council restructures investments, with calls on hold until summer. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
- I fail to see how a 43.5% drop in funding is compatible with the statement Ian Chapman made to the committee on Tuesday that funding for curiosity driven research at UKRI will be flat (which is technically still a cut but a smaller one).
- As a former editor: PLEASE do this! A quick e-mail saying: "I don't have time, but try [A] or [B]" can speed up the review process by *weeks*. And it also helps the many junior scientists who need reviewing experience on their CVs, but struggle to get invited.
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- Seconded, doing this properly is a lot of work.
- Our new preprint on SMCHD1! We’ve shown SMCHD1’s ATPase activity is critical for function in vivo, and excitingly a new DNA binding domain neighbouring the ATPase domain activates the enzymatic function, which is important for normal chromatin binding. urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...
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- Fantastic, congratulations all. Sounds very interesting.
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- Yes the lack of clarity on this is causing a lot of panic and speculation.
- Colleagues of mine @naomilpollock.bsky.social and @alice-rothnie.bsky.social are at a BBSRC event today and have been told that the RM call is paused, until maybe March, to allow them to transition to a open call rather than 3 deadlines a year. Nice that this is widely communicated 😉
- Yes, the lack of communication has been terrible. Contrast this with Leverhulme who have clearly communicated a pause, the reason and duration ages in advance.
- H3K79me2/3 is sufficient to antagonise PRC1 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Interesting!
- Some thoughts on the select committee appearance by the boss of UKRI, Ian Chapman yesterday. It’s a long watch but can be seen here: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/... Thread 🧵
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- Yes, this was the big omission I noted. That and nothing on the reports that MRC panels have been told to fund a lot fewer grants next round. Potentially connected to the change in MRC budget from £200 to £113 million you mention above (not sure over what period this was).
- AI hallucinations in science manuscripts are a nuisance. Paranormal citations, or paracites, will be a nightmare. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (w/ @sina.bio & @lauraluebbert.com).
- Interesting article and I like the term paracites. They do seem to a particular problem for LLMs in my limited experience. 1/2
- Do we have any insights into how paracites arise? From my quick read of the article - you appear to suggest it's potentially due to use of similar terminology between unrelated studies? 2/2
