This followed yesterday’s revelation that the Department of Trade and Industry is to cut £68 million already allocated to the UK research councils for 2007-08.

The scientists' union Prospect, which represents 5,000 scientists, engineers and other specialists working in UK research councils, said the DTI raid on funds could have devastating consequences and was ‘a snub to science’.

Sue Ferns, Head of Research at Prospect said: "This demonstrates that when it comes to science there is a lack of strategic vision at the heart of government. One arm of government is doing one thing while another is doing something completely different and no one is taking responsibility for the damage to the UK science base. This is expediency not strategy."

The research councils’ budget of £2.8 billion for the coming year is supposed to be ring-fenced, meaning that it can only be spent by the Office of Science and Innovation and funds cannot be used by other parts of DTI.

Sue Ferns is writing to DTI Secretary of State Alistair Darling, asking how the Treasury’s rules on science spending can be put aside by DTI; and what steps he proposes to take to ensure that Britain meets the European Union’s R&D investment target of 3% of GDP by 2010, as compared with 1.9% today.

Ironically, news of the cutbacks comes when DTI science minister Malcolm Wicks is on a visit to the Antarctic, studying the effects of climate change with the British Antarctic Survey, part of NERC.

Research programmes likely to suffer because the cuts include food safety, animal health, crop production and pesticide research in the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (£6.7m cut); climate change, land and marine pollution, wildlife conservation and biodiversity in the Natural Environment Research Council (£9.7m cut).