Knockin radio telescope may shut amid funding cuts, scientists fear
A radio telescope in Shropshire with a 25m (82ft) diameter dish, could be at risk of closing because of proposed cuts in national science funding.
The site in Knockin, near Oswestry, is part of e-MERLIN (Enhanced Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network), a globally significant group of seven sites across the UK.
However, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is expected to reduce funding across particle physics, astronomy and physics.
The organisation has been approached for comment on the proposals, which have prompted North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan to meet groups who are concerned about potential impact on them.
Liberal Democrat Morgan has also met with world-leading physicist Prof Brian Cox, who warned that the cuts could be as high £162m, roughly 30% of particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics research.
“There’s a real concern that the researchers that use those radio telescopes will be the people that get the chop,” Morgan said.
“That equipment will fall out of use, and we’ll lose all that talent and all that kind of world-leading research from Britain.”
