The British science establishment continues to lobby the government over forthcoming cuts in UK science funding.

Six heads of leading universities have penned a letter from the Lords science and technology committee, warning Science Minister David Willetts that cuts will harm the UK’s research base, universities and the economy, and highlighting the risk of ‘brain-drain’ – the fear that scientists faced with funding cuts will move abroad to work. The letter was written in response to a request made by Willetts in July for evidence that cuts would harm UK science.

Lord Krebs, chair of the Lords select committee, spoke about the letter on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “In a world where talent is highly mobile, a widening of the funding differential, whether real or perceived, between the UK and our competitors will put at risk the ability of the UK to continue to recruit and retain the very best brains. The global market for scientific talent is highly mobile and people go where the resources are.”

Meanwhile, Sir Richard Sykes, former rector of Imperial College London and chairman of the UK stem cell foundation, says cuts will threaten British stem cell research, but points the finger of blame at the previous government, rather than the coalition, for failing to provide funding for the development of discoveries into medical therapies. He says £10m of yearly funding promised by Gordon Brown in 2005 failed to materialise. “We never received a penny,” he says, urging the current government to close the funding gap.

In the Financial Times Willetts says he will make sure that some extra funding is made available for stem cell researchers to develop therapies from their work – £10m to be released by the Technology Strategy Board. But Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London and chair of the BioIndustry Association’s Regenerative Medicine Industry Group, thinks the extra funding “is not enough to propel us forward”.

In his speech earlier this month, Business Secretary Vince Cable suggested that scientists must “do more for less”, but many scientists are concerned that this is unrealistic. Lewis Dartnell of University College London, says: “Science funding in the UK is already extremely competitive, and many first-rate research projects are already falling unfunded. Cutting back funding won’t sort the wheat from the chaff, but will mean that even more excellent science is neglected.”

And the ‘brain-drain’ may already be underway: University College London says it can no longer afford to offer competitive salaries, senior researchers from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and Imperial College London have already decided to jump ship to the US, and candidates have withdrawn their applications for the post of professor at the University of Manchester, all because of the stormy times ahead in UK science. As Lord Krebs says: “People are picking up the signals and are already moving overseas in response.”