David Delpy, the chief executive of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, said: “Obviously, there needs to be a balance between arts and science funding. Both are important. However, there remains a shortage in physical sciences and engineering graduates. We agree that when it comes to priority areas such as climate change a cross-disciplinary approach is vital if we are to be successful.”
Delpy points to the Research Council UK’s “Living With Environmental Change” program as an example of how the seven research councils are working together “to try and solve major problems that face society.”
“Increasingly, success in markets, which many people might assume to be dominated by technological advances, depends just as much on factors such as design, economics, branding and consumer understanding,” Berry said. “Similarly, effectively tackling some of the most significant health and environmental challenges will depend just as much on changing people’s behavior as on advances in medicine, physics or chemistry.”
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