Last year was the year of elections and 2025 is going to be the year of decisions.
After many countries, including the UK, Ireland and the US, went to the polls in 2024, the start of 2025 will see governments at the beginning of new terms, forced to respond swiftly to mounting economic, social, security, environmental and technological challenges.
These issues would be difficult to address at any given time, but today they come amid a turbulent geopolitical context. Governments are often judged against short milestones – the first 100 days or a first budget – but urgency should not come at the cost of thinking long-term, because the decisions over the next few months will shape outcomes for years, perhaps decades, to come. This is no less true for science than it is for health and social care, education or international relations.
In the UK, the first half of the year will be dominated by the government’s spending review. Due in late spring, it could be one of the toughest political tests for UK science, as the implications of the tight spending plans announced in the October budget become clear. Decisions about departmental spending will have important implications for physics funding, from research to infrastructure, facilities and teaching.
One of the UK government’s commitments is to establish 10-year funding cycles for key R&D activities – a policy that could be a positive improvement. Physics discoveries often take time to realise in full, but their transformational nature is indisputable. From fibre-optic communications to magnetic resonance imaging, physics has been indispensable to many of the world’s most impactful and successful innovations.
Emerging technologies, enabled by physicists’ breakthroughs in fields such as materials science and quantum physics, promise to transform the way we live and work, and create new business opportunities and open up new markets. A clear, comprehensive and long-term vision for R&D would instil confidence among researchers and innovators, and long-term and sustainable R&D funding would enable people and disruptive ideas to flourish and drive tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
Alongside the spending review, we are also expecting the publication of the government’s industrial strategy. The focus of the green paper published last year was an indication of how the strategy will place significance on science and technology in positioning the UK for economic growth.
If we don’t recognise the need to fund more physicists, we will miss so many of the opportunities that lie ahead
Physics-based industries are a foundation stone for the UK economy and are highly productive, as highlighted by research commissioned by the Institute of Physics, which publishes Physics World. Across the UK, the physics sector generates £229bn gross value added, or 11% of total UK gross domestic product. It creates a collective turnover of £643bn, or £1380bn when indirect and induced turnover is included.
Labour productivity in physics-based businesses is also strong at £84 300 per worker, per year. So, if physics is not at the heart of this effort, then the government’s mission of economic revival is in danger of failing to get off the launch pad.
A pivotal year
Another of the new government’s policy priorities is the strategic defence review, which is expected to be published later this year. It could have huge implications for physics given its core role in many of the technologies that contribute to the UK’s defence capabilities. The changing geopolitical landscape, and potential for strained relations between global powers, may well bring research security to the front of the national mind.
Intellectual property, and scientific innovation, are some of the UK’s greatest strengths and it is right to secure them. But physics discoveries in particular can be hampered by overzealous security measures. So much of the important work in our discipline comes from years of collaboration between researchers across the globe. Decisions about research security need to protect, not hamper, the future of UK physics research.
This year could also be pivotal for UK universities, as securing their financial stability and future will be one of the major challenges. Last year, the pressures faced by higher education institutions became apparent, with announcements of course closures, redundancies and restructures as a way of saving money. The rise in tuition fees has far from solved the problem, so we need to be prepared for more turbulence coming for the higher education sector.
These things matter enormously. We have heard that universities are facing a tough situation, and it’s getting harder for physics departments to exist. But if we don’t recognise the need to fund more physicists, we will miss so many of the opportunities that lie ahead.
As we celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology that marks the centenary of the initial development of quantum mechanics by Werner Heisenberg, 2025 is a reminder of how the benefits of physics span over decades.
We need to enhance all the vital and exciting developments that are happening in physics departments. The country wants and needs a stronger scientific workforce – just think about all those individuals who studied physics and now work in industries that are defending the country – and that workforce will be strongly dependent on physics skills. So our priority is to make sure that physics departments keep doing world-leading research and preparing the next generation of physicists that they do so well.
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