More than 150 scientists and engineers turned up at a Save British Science meeting to hear how the different political parties would tackle science issues.
At the Oxford meeting, science minister Lord Sainsbury clashed with Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, over the Lib Dems' policy of finding extra cash for science by scrapping the export credit guarantee scheme.
Lord Sainsbury claimed that the scheme was self-funding and cost the Government nothing.
But Dr Harris, the Lib Dems' science spokesman, said that when the Government under-wrote debt it cost money. The Lib Dems say scrapping the scheme would raise hundreds of millions of pounds which could be ploughed into research.
Save British Science director Dr Peter Cotgreave said: "Science is a mainstream political issue and the detail of science policy is important, especially in a place like Oxford, which has two universities, and a major scientific presence."
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