TL;DR: On 27 July 2026, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) confirmed that STFC will end its funding for e-MERLIN, the radio telescope network anchored at Jodrell Bank Observatory, after 31 March 2028 — putting the future of the historic Lovell Telescope in doubt. It’s the latest step in a multi-year STFC budget retrenchment that also cancelled the remainder of UK funding for CERN’s LHCb upgrade in December 2025. Neither decision is a judgement on the science; both trace back to the same structural funding squeeze. Here’s what research offices with UK astronomy or particle-physics partnerships should track.
What UKRI and STFC actually announced
e-MERLIN is a UK-wide network of seven radio telescopes, headquartered at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, of which the 76-metre Lovell Telescope is the best-known instrument. On 27 July 2026, STFC confirmed it will not renew funding for e-MERLIN beyond its current agreement, which runs through 31 March 2028. After that date, STFC begins what it describes, in its own published factsheet on the decision, as “a managed withdrawal process.”
Because the Lovell Telescope and the wider Jodrell Bank site are owned and operated by the University of Manchester rather than STFC directly, the decision does not close the observatory outright — but it removes e-MERLIN’s core national funding source and leaves the university, or another funder, to find an alternative before the 2028 deadline. STFC’s Executive Chair, Professor Michele Dougherty, described the wider package of funding decisions as “tough, but necessary.”
The same announcement covered other facilities beyond e-MERLIN: the UK will withdraw future funding from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, and the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) has been invited to reapply for support at 60% of its previous planning assumptions.
Why now: the budget arithmetic behind the decision
STFC’s own stated rationale, from its factsheet: “In a constrained funding environment, STFC has prioritised investment in SKAO, which will be the world’s largest radio astronomy facility.” That prioritisation sits inside a broader multi-year budget picture. STFC’s core annual budget is set to rise by only £7 million, to £842 million, across 2026-2030 — effectively flat against inflation, rising energy costs, and unfavourable currency movements. Even the Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics (PPAN) budget line, which STFC says has been relatively protected compared with other lines, is still set to decline by 2.7% over the same four years. A separate multidisciplinary-facilities budget line — covering shared national facilities such as the ISIS neutron source — faces a steeper 15% reduction, saving £28 million, which is already reported to be forcing reduced operating time at ISIS.
Read together, these figures describe a structural funding constraint across STFC’s whole facilities portfolio, not a specific judgement about e-MERLIN’s scientific output.
Not an isolated decision: the LHCb precedent
The e-MERLIN decision is not the first time STFC has withdrawn already-committed funding from a major physics facility this budget cycle. On 19 December 2025, STFC separately told UK researchers that the remainder of the UK’s committed funding for the LHCb upgrade at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider would not be prioritised and was being cancelled. The UK had been awarded £49.4 million toward the roughly £150 million upgrade in 2022, and had already spent around £5 million on pre-construction work, before the remaining commitment was withdrawn. The UK holds a 20% stake in the LHCb collaboration; the experiment’s international spokesperson, Tim Gershon, described the outlook as “grim,” noting that “excellent-rated and internationally-leading science like LHCb” could no longer be supported despite prior UK commitments. The LHCb cancellation was one of four large physics infrastructure projects defunded around the same time, covering both UK national facilities and international particle-physics collaborations.
The e-MERLIN and LHCb decisions were not announced together and are formally separate — but they describe the same underlying pattern: STFC retrenching from established, scientifically strong commitments because its core budget cannot sustain the existing facility and project portfolio alongside newer priorities.
What STFC is protecting instead: the SKAO era
STFC frames the e-MERLIN decision as a reallocation, not a retreat from Jodrell Bank itself. The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) — an intergovernmental organisation whose global headquarters sits at Jodrell Bank — is where STFC says its continuing radio-astronomy investment is now directed. Per UKRI’s own factsheet, the UK’s committed SKAO investment runs to roughly £327 million across 2021-2030; SKAO’s headquarters carries annual operating costs of about £15 million, mostly funded through international contributions rather than the UK alone; construction of the SKAO headquarters building was funded by STFC (£9.8 million), the University of Manchester (£5.7 million) and Cheshire East Council (£1 million); and SKAO’s headquarters now employs roughly 200 staff on site. Multi-country facilities like SKAO are typically underpinned by formal research collaboration agreements between the funding partners — a structure worth understanding for any research office whose institution has, or is considering, a role in the SKAO era at Jodrell Bank.
What research offices with UK astronomy or physics partnerships should note
- e-MERLIN-dependent commitments have a hard funding horizon. Any multi-year award, studentship, facility-access agreement, or collaboration extending past 31 March 2028 that relies on e-MERLIN needs an explicit contingency plan now, not in 2027.
- “Protected” does not mean flat or growing. If your institution partners with STFC-funded UK astronomy or particle-physics groups, budget for a genuinely leaner core-facilities environment through 2030 — PPAN’s relatively protected status still means a 2.7% real-terms decline over four years.
- Watch the other facilities named in the same announcement. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and BiSON decisions, alongside e-MERLIN, are an early read on how STFC’s prioritisation process is likely to treat other shared or joint facilities your researchers use.
- Treat committed international co-funding as reviewable, not fixed. The LHCb precedent shows STFC will cancel already-committed, multi-year international collaboration funding mid-programme when priorities shift. Where UK collaboration agreements or grant terms reference STFC co-funding, flag that as a genuine budget-cycle risk rather than a settled line item.
- Track the SKAO transition specifically. STFC has been explicit that its continuing Jodrell Bank investment is routed through SKAO rather than e-MERLIN. Partnerships oriented toward next-generation radio astronomy access may be better positioned going forward than those built around the existing e-MERLIN network. Institutions that already work with UKRI funding mechanisms can track SKAO-related opportunities the same way they would any other UKRI-administered award, via the UKRI Funding Service.
Frequently asked questions
When does e-MERLIN funding actually end?
STFC’s current funding agreement for e-MERLIN runs through 31 March 2028. After that date, STFC begins what it calls a “managed withdrawal process,” per its published factsheet on the decision.
Is the Lovell Telescope closing?
Not immediately, and not automatically as a direct result of this decision alone. The Lovell Telescope and the wider Jodrell Bank Observatory site are owned and operated by the University of Manchester, not STFC. Losing e-MERLIN’s core national funding puts the observatory’s future in doubt unless the university or another funder secures alternative support before 2028, but STFC’s decision does not by itself set a closure date.
Why is STFC cutting e-MERLIN while continuing to invest at Jodrell Bank?
STFC treats these as separate priorities within a constrained budget: it says it is directing continuing radio-astronomy investment toward the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), which it describes as becoming the world’s largest radio astronomy facility, rather than continuing to fund the existing e-MERLIN network in parallel.
Is the LHCb upgrade cancellation part of the same announcement as the e-MERLIN cuts?
No. UKRI and STFC’s e-MERLIN decision was announced 27 July 2026; UK researchers were told the LHCb upgrade funding would be withdrawn back in December 2025. The two are formally separate decisions, but both stem from the same multi-year STFC budget retrenchment.
Sources: UKRI, “Factsheet: Jodrell Bank, e-MERLIN and UKRI funding”; Physics World, “Future of UK physics threatened by ‘ruinous’ funding cuts, says Institute of Physics”; Physics World, “CERN upgrade to LHCb experiment threatened by UK funding cuts”; The Register, “Signals are grim for Jodrell Bank Observatory after UK science funding decision”.
