London

Physics equipment, such as this dark-matter detector, will compete with astronomy projects. Credit: IGOR LIUBARSKY/RAL

Britain's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is to require high-energy physicists and astronomers to compete head-to-head for project funding for the first time.

The PPARC was formed in 1994 as the main UK research agency for two disciplines which each rely heavily on the long-term planning of expensive facilities. But until now, its advisory and peer-review structure has been firmly divided between separate arms for astronomy and high-energy physics.

Some high-energy physicists have expressed concerns about the new structure, which is expected to be approved by the PPARC's governing council this week. The physicists fear that their projects, which often involve years of experiment design and construction, may lose out in direct competition with equally expensive but more rapidly productive astronomy projects.

Under the new structure, a single panel will review and approve small project grants in both astronomy and high-energy physics, helped by appropriate specialists. Funds for larger projects, costing up to £3 million (US$4.4 million), will be controlled by the council's main scientific committee.

John Garvey, a high-energy physicist at the University of Birmingham and a member of the PPARC panel convened to review its structure, says that his peers' earlier concerns have been addressed by the latest plan. “We now have something on the table that everyone broadly agrees to,” he says. “But at the beginning I do think there was a lack of understanding that particle physicists are experimentalists and astronomers are observers, and that the problems we face pursuing our science are different,” he adds. The high-energy physicists advising the panel will now serve for three years, bringing more continuity, Garvey says.

“This is a change, and change gets people worried,” admits PPARC chief executive Ian Halliday. “But I think the fears of some in the particle-physics community are unjustified. We don't have any hidden agendas.” He acknowledges that the current system is effective, but says that the new structure will “bring greater focus, coherence, visibility and transparency” to decision-making.

→http://www.rsc.ca./foodbiotechnology/indexEN.html