At a London Cosmology Discussion Meeting last week, representatives of the London cosmology groups discussed ways of increasing collaboration and cooperation between the groups and how to utilize the various skills in London in a more coherent way. One of the main outcomes of this meeting was a consensus to form a ‘virtual’ institute to act as an umbrella organisation for the collaboration efforts. This London Institute of Cosmology would initially act as a clearing house for event information, especially seminars in the groups, information about research visitors to London, and provide a structure for possible funding applications.

The results of the Comprehensive Spending Review are being announced tomorrow and the feeling in the astrophysics community is increasingly pessimistic about the size of the cuts to research funding. With one day to go until the broad outline of the cuts is given, rumours are running wild that STFC will have to cut major programmes, exit from international collaborations and in the worst case scenario start to claw back grants which have already been awarded.