It is feared all 24 jobs will be axed at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, the largest interdisciplinary team in the UK dedicated to improving the science used to investigate crimes and prosecute those responsible.
Marra questioned why the university had sent around redundancy notices to staff last week when the centre still had 16 months of its 10-year funding grant from the Leverhulme Trust remaining.
“It’s absolutely scandalous that the university would throw out one of their most valuable assets,” said the award-winning crime writer Val McDermid, whose series Traces is based around a fictionalised version of the Leverhulme.
“The Scottish government has created a business model where cuts to funding for Scottish students means fee income from other sources subsidises those students rather than cross-subsiding research, leading our institutions to make crazier and crazier decisions about revenue,” he said.
Dundee University’s world-leading forensic science research centre, which inspired the hit BBC drama Traces, is under threat of closure as the institution attempts to plug a £30m budget deficit.
