Losing more than money
11 January 2019
Dr Tim Bradshaw, Russell Group Chief Executive, writes that a no deal Brexit will mean a significant loss in people and research funding.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has promised a slew of Whitehall guidance to help the public prepare for a no-deal Brexit. It brings back memories of the ‘Protect and Survive’ information campaign in the 1970s, when we were supposed to whitewash our windows and hide under the table in event of nuclear attack.
A no-deal Brexit is a rather less dramatic proposition but will cause significant disruption nonetheless. As universities, we are concerned about the impact on everything from transport to medical supplies, but our biggest concerns are around people and research.
A no-deal Brexit escalates uncertainty for our EU academics and students. We are pleased the Government is committed to maintaining rights for individuals already here, but research and innovation thrive on the flow of knowledge and ideas, so we need to make sure the UK remains an attractive destination for top talent beyond Brexit.
Getting the visa and immigration system right is one part of the answer, but it will always be second best to the freedom of movement we have now across the EU and EEA. One worrying trend we have already noticed is a nine per cent year on year decline in EU nationals enrolling for postgraduate research studies at our universities.
These are some of the brightest and best individuals whom we might expect to go on to stellar careers in business or academia. So, we lose out twice: first from the research they would have done here and second as they are then more likely to develop their longer-term career paths elsewhere. The ongoing uncertainty around Brexit really isn’t helping us compete as we previously could.
We also need to secure our place in the world’s largest collaborative research programme: the EU’s Horizon 2020 and successor programme Horizon Europe. There is a helpful Government underwrite guarantee for existing projects in Horizon 2020, but a no-deal Brexit instantly makes the UK a ‘third country’ in EU parlance, barring our access to two core strands of the programme: the European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowships.
Together these are fundamental to our international research competitiveness. They help attract the best researchers to the UK. They support some of the most ground-breaking research our universities do and they underpin our wider collaborations with universities, business, the health sector and public bodies right across Europe.
The money this brings to UK universities is very important. We estimate over £1 billion could be lost to us in the next couple of years in the event of no-deal. Even more important though are the connections to collaborative networks, research facilities, data sets and individuals that would be lost. At the very least, we need the Government to guarantee a similar level of funding being made available for domestic alternatives in the short-term, but we will also need to replicate the processes and infrastructure behind these programmes to have any chance of securing similar value for the UK.
Ultimately, though, this isn’t about universities and research, but about the long-term capabilities of the UK and what this means to individuals, families and communities.
The sort of research supported by ERC grants at our universities underpins medical treatments, environmental protection, social policies and new engineering technologies that benefit everyone. ERC-funded researchers at Oxford are now developing a universal flu vaccine that could provide protection against all past and present variants of the H1, H3 and influenza B viruses. At the University of Glasgow, prototypes of a new rapid-charging battery are being developed which could transform the performance of electric vehicles. The University of Manchester is part of an EU network developing proton beam technologies to target cancer tumours more effectively. And Kings College London research supported by the ERC has shown that you can actually ‘tune’ the brain’s ‘hardware’ using different stimuli, which could be vital in developing new therapies for neurological disorders such as epilepsy.
Parliamentarians now have to decide what next for the UK in terms of Brexit. Our overriding hope is that we can avoid a no-deal scenario. A range of other options are still open, and preferable, but time is ticking away relentlessly.
Previously published by iNews.
Related case studies
Unlocking potential for next-generation medical scanning
Researchers at University of York have developed a new way to magnetise molecules in the human body, paving the way for a new generation of low-cost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Read more >
An alternative low-carbon solution for heating
Academics from Durham University have been pioneering research into geothermal energy.
Read more >