If plans by the UK’s science funding body go ahead, we won’t be able to benefit from Britain’s membership of Cern and other large international projects

Alarm bells are ringing in the UK research community. Physics departments may close and researchers leave the UK. What is happening and why?

The alarm comes from changes in the way taxpayers’ money is invested by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which recently published its plan on how to disburse £38.6bn of public research and development funding over the next four years. Change is always unsettling, and as the UKRI’s chief executive, Ian Chapman, says, there will always be those who lose out when change happens. Difficult choices must be made.

Jon Butterworth is professor of physics at University College London, and a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at Cern