10 signatures reached
To: Government UK
Save Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK
I'm asking you to sign this petition and tell the government: fund Jodrell Bank properly, and don't let short-term cuts cost us a piece of Britain's scientific soul.
Why is this important?
I'm Garrett, 52, living in Birmingham. Astronomy has been a quiet passion of mine for years - the kind of thing that puts the rest of life in perspective. So when I heard that Jodrell Bank, one of the great symbols of British science, is now facing an uncertain future, I couldn't stay silent.
For nearly 70 years, the Lovell Telescope has stood in Cheshire as part of the UK's story of discovery - tracking the first satellites, listening to pulsars, helping map the universe. It's Grade I-listed. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It isn't just scientific infrastructure — it's part of our national identity.
UK Research and Innovation has confirmed it's cutting funding to zero for e-MERLIN, the network of seven radio telescopes that Jodrell Bank's Lovell Telescope is part of, when the current funding agreement ends in 2028 (Research Professional News) . The BBC has reported the entire observatory is at risk of closure unless alternative funding can be found (Research Professional News) . This is one of a wave of cuts by the Science and Technology Facilities Council that also includes UK withdrawal from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and a 20% cut to the Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre (Royal Astronomical Society) . The Royal Astronomical Society's president called it devastating news for UK astronomy (The Register) .
What gets lost in budget lines like this isn't just a dish in a field. It's the researchers who'll lose their jobs. It's the schoolkids who visit Jodrell Bank's discovery centre and decide, right then, that they want to study the stars. The Institute of Physics has warned these cuts risk discouraging young people from pursuing careers in science altogether, damaging the UK's talent pipeline for a generation (Quantum Zeitgeist) .
I don't have a science career or letters after my name in physics — just a genuine love of looking up. But that's exactly why this matters to me: Jodrell Bank belongs to all of us, not just to the scientists who work there. If we lose it, we don't get it back.
For nearly 70 years, the Lovell Telescope has stood in Cheshire as part of the UK's story of discovery - tracking the first satellites, listening to pulsars, helping map the universe. It's Grade I-listed. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It isn't just scientific infrastructure — it's part of our national identity.
UK Research and Innovation has confirmed it's cutting funding to zero for e-MERLIN, the network of seven radio telescopes that Jodrell Bank's Lovell Telescope is part of, when the current funding agreement ends in 2028 (Research Professional News) . The BBC has reported the entire observatory is at risk of closure unless alternative funding can be found (Research Professional News) . This is one of a wave of cuts by the Science and Technology Facilities Council that also includes UK withdrawal from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and a 20% cut to the Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre (Royal Astronomical Society) . The Royal Astronomical Society's president called it devastating news for UK astronomy (The Register) .
What gets lost in budget lines like this isn't just a dish in a field. It's the researchers who'll lose their jobs. It's the schoolkids who visit Jodrell Bank's discovery centre and decide, right then, that they want to study the stars. The Institute of Physics has warned these cuts risk discouraging young people from pursuing careers in science altogether, damaging the UK's talent pipeline for a generation (Quantum Zeitgeist) .
I don't have a science career or letters after my name in physics — just a genuine love of looking up. But that's exactly why this matters to me: Jodrell Bank belongs to all of us, not just to the scientists who work there. If we lose it, we don't get it back.
