London

Forty-nine research and technical jobs are to be lost at Britain's Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences (CCMS), because of what its core funding agency, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), describes as “severe financial difficulties”.

Twenty-seven redundancies will be compulsory. Most will come from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and four from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory.

The redundancies have been blamed on declining support from government and industry. Over the past three to four years, CCMS has seen a 30 per cent decline in government contracts and a deterioration in support for long-term research.

The Institute of Professionals, Managers and Specialists—the union that represents many research council scientists—has expressed concern over the job losses.

But it welcomed a £7 million (US$11.6 million) rescue plan from NERC. This will cover the centre's deficits from the past two years, and the estimated cost of the redundancies.

NERC has approved a package that cancels an extension to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and privatizes some of its work. After a review of CCMS science programmes, it has been decided that redundancies will occur in the research areas of lipid membranes, larval fish biology, numerical modelling and southern ocean dynamics.