SCIENTISTS CRITICISE BIG JUMP IN MILITARY R&D

Web version of a press release issued on 18th July 2003 by SGR

Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) has today criticised the major jump in spending by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on research and development over the last year, as revealed this week by Office of Science and Technology statistics.

In the financial year 2002-03 spending by the MoD on R&D rose to £2.61 billion, an increase of 27% over spending in the previous year. This huge jump has brought this spending back up, in real terms, to the average levels of the 1990s. Military sources now account for one third of the total public spending on scientific research and technological development in the UK.

SGR believes that scientific and technological expertise should be directed towards peaceful and sustainable ends, and hence that the MoD budget should be being cut not increased.

Dr Stuart Parkinson, Director of SGR said: "Much of the MoD's research and development is geared towards making weaponry, sometimes for export to regimes with bad human rights records. It would be much more ethical to use the scientific expertise to accelerate, for example, the development of environmentally-friendly technologies."

Notes:

1. Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) is a UK-based organisation of approx 600 scientists promoting ethical science and technology, ie that which contributes to peace, social justice and environmental sustainability.

2. UK Government R&D statistics were announced in "The Forward Look 2003: Government-funded science, engineering and technology" published by the Office of Science and Technology on 16th July. The figures above were calculated from Tables 4 & 5, and excluded the UK contribution to EU R&D.