A radio telescope in Shropshire with a 25m (82ft) diameter dish, could be at risk of closing because of proposed cuts in national science funding.
The site in Knockin, near Oswestry, is part of e-MERLIN (Enhanced Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network), a globally significant group of seven sites across the UK.
However, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is expected to reduce funding across particle physics, astronomy and physics.
STFC said it was forecasting costs to exceed its flat budget, which meant that a savings programme was required to balance its budget by 2030.
“After extensive consultation with the research community, we are preparing to detail how we will achieve financial sustainability while protecting world leading science and delivering the greatest long term impact.”
The proposals have prompted North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan to meet groups who are concerned about potential impact on them.
Liberal Democrat Morgan has also met with world-leading physicist Prof Brian Cox, who warned that the cuts could be as high £162m, roughly 30% of particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics research.
“There’s a real concern that the researchers that use those radio telescopes will be the people that get the chop,” Morgan said.
“That equipment will fall out of use, and we’ll lose all that talent and all that kind of world-leading research from Britain.”