An £80 million hole in funding for physics and astronomy was closed yesterday with the decision to cut or reduce involvement in a range of national and international projects.

The cuts were announced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) after months of controversy over which projects should pay the penalty for the shortfall.

Among the projects to lose their funding are Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network which observes the Sun, and Astrogrid, a virtual observatory. British involvement with BaBar, an American-based study into the differences between matter and antimatter, and Integral, a satellite with the most sensitive gamma ray observatory in space, will come to an end.

Several other projects have had their planned funding reduced including ExoMars, a European Space Agency scheme to land a probe to search for signs of life on Mars, and Minos, which investigates some of the world’s tiniest particles.

The future of the Jodrell Bank observatory remains in the balance with negotiations on funding still going on. The STFC has stepped back from its threat to axe the programme but will only offer a proportion of the £2.5 million annual running costs. A decision is expected early next week.

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