Leader: Spend wisely or lose it

The allocations of the next three years of UK science spending give research a major cash increase in real terms. This is part of a ten-year programme that should put billions of extra pounds into universities. For managers, the result is that every grant their researchers win will bring in more money than before, easing a long-standing problem - where winning research awards has cost universities money.

The challenge for universities is a novel one - how to make the most of an expanding system. Some of the cash is going into colourful assets such as Antarctic bases, telescopes and research ships. But much of it will be used to make life easier for researchers starting their careers. More will be spent on transferring knowledge produced with research council awards to a wider user base.

But governments do not spend billions on a whim. The Government will expect results, especially in the new research areas such as energy and clinical medicine. It will expect the knowledge-transfer money to reduce industry's complaints that academics are impossible to work with. Most of all, it will want to see the cash being used to develop the UK as a world centre for ambitious home-grown and international researchers. If ministers do not see signs that the cash is being used effectively, they will find other ways to spend it.