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Science education centres around the UK face
serious financial threats and some have already closed, MPs have
warned.
The science and technology select committee wants the government to
give centres at risk short-term funding.
Two of the centres which were funded by the Millennium Commission -
Doncaster’s Earth Centre and Ayrshire’s Big Idea - have already
closed, its report says.
The loss of such centres is a threat to science education, it says.
Ministers say they will respond “in due course”.
The report, the Funding of Science and Discovery Centres, says that
these centres make a valuable contribution to the public’s
engagement with science - but there are serious financial problems.
After initial funding, these centres are unable to pay for
themselves - and the report says that without a change in their
financial support, they will be closed before their value has been
properly assessed.
The Earth Centre and Big Idea have both closed and another,
At-Bristol, has had to close two of its three attractions and has
made 45 staff redundant.
The report says the government should not be obliged to fund
loss-making centres on a regular basis, but as a short-term measure
it should make cash available.
It also recommends that “steps are taken to reduce the tax burden on
science and other educational centres”.
The report says that the science centre concept has been around for
about 20 years - representing a place for people to explore science
often in an interactive setting.
The biggest injection of funding came in the form of £450m for 18
centres from the Millennium Commission.
But the report says that in terms of earning revenue, science
centres - apart from examples such as the Eden Project in Cornwall -
have struggled to raise more than 80% of their running costs.
This leaves them with a recurrent funding problem, says the MPs’
report, which proposes they should be given a reduced rate of VAT -
and it urges the government to consider supporting science centres
in the way it subsidises museums.
A Department for Innovation, Universities and Science spokesman said
that the government is “keen to encourage young people and the
broader community to get involved with science”.
He said they would respond to the report more fully “in due course”.
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