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I am delighted to be here today, during Science
Week, to officially open the John Dalton campus and at the same time
unveil a blue plaque in honour of Manchester’s most famous chemist. I
would like to thank both Vice Chancellor Dame Alexandra Burslem, and
Dean of Faculty Professor Maureen Neal for their kind invitation and for
giving me the chance to come and see the new facilities at first hand. I
would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those of
you who have been involved in the exciting redevelopment of the John
Dalton site.
We know John Dalton today, primarily, for his
advocacy of the atomic theory although his enquiring mind and
wide-ranging research also led him to make many important discoveries in
fields other than chemistry. His first paper to the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society gave the first account of that optical
peculiarity we know as colour blindness, a condition from which he also
suffered. John Dalton was also a pioneer meteorologist, his fascination
with weather and atmosphere led to his research into the nature of
gases, which in turn became the foundation on which he built his atomic
theory. Although over two hundred years old Dalton’s atomic theory still
remains one of the foundations of modern chemistry. The campus and the
newly refurbished Tower and the exciting facilities you have built will
stand as a memorial to his ground-breaking discoveries.
This Government is passionately committed to
maintaining and enhancing the excellence of our research base, and
investing in it. We believe that science is a key driver for wealth
creation, employment and improving the quality of life. To quote the
Prime Minister, we want the U.K. to be one of the best places in the
world for science and innovation.
The excellence of our research base is a great
national asset. With 1% of the world’s population we undertake 5% of the
world’s science, produce 9% of all scientific papers, and receive 12% of
all citations, including 13% of the highly cited ones. We all should be
proud of this achievement. But, if we are to maintain the excellence of
our science base, we need to fund it properly.
Successive Spending Reviews have seen
substantial rises for investment in science and research. In 1997/98 the
science budget was £1.3 billion. By 2007/8 it will have more than
doubled in real terms to £3.4 billion by 2007/8.
As part of this increase we are now spending
£500 million per year on renovating our research infrastructure. To date
we have spent nearly £3bn on over 1300 projects, and over the next three
years we will spend another £1.5bn.
And we also have great ambitions for the future.
That is why we set out in our 10-Year Investment Framework for Science
and Innovation the goal to increase the level of knowledge intensity in
the UK as measured by the ratio of R&D to national gross domestic
product, from its current level of around 1.9% to 2.5% of GDP by around
2014.
I am delighted, therefore, that we have invested
£3 million through the SRIF investment programme at Manchester
Metropolitan. With investment also from the England Higher Education
Funding Council and the universities own funding this has produced this
truly outstanding building achievement. Congratulations must also go to
the consortium of companies who were involved in the construction
programme including Pochin, Laing O’Rourke and Shepherd Engineering
Services.
The last seven years have seen a renaissance in
our science research infrastructure and as Science Minister I have had
great pleasure in opening many new, excellent, science research
facilities across the UK. MMU’s £42 million building programme stands
proudly alongside the very best of those developments. I am sure the
newly refurbished John Dalton Tower and campus will become a symbol of
MMU’s ambitions for science teaching and research over the coming years.
It gives me great pleasure to unveil the John
Dalton plaque and I now, formally, declare the new John Dalton Faculty
of Science and Engineering open.
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