No-deal Brexit 'will leave UK science dead for years'

Top scientists including two Nobel laureates have accused the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, of behaving “like a clown” in pursuing a no-deal Brexit that would leave UK science “dead” for years, according to a report in The Guardian.

Leaving without a deal would put at risk the UK’s involvement in the €80 billion (US$88 billion) Horizon 2020 research programme and its successor, the €94 billion (US$103 billion) Horizon Europe programme.

According to Robert-Jan Smits, former director general of research and innovation at the European Commission, who was one of the main architects of Horizon 2020, there is “zero chance” of the UK negotiating associate membership of the programme if it leaves the European Union without a withdrawal agreement.

Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, which is the largest biomedical facility in Europe, said: “Colleagues abroad think the UK has lost its senses. The prime minister behaves like a clown and the world has noted that. Our reputation has plummeted.”

The Guardian also reported that Manchester University-based Sir Andre Geim, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on graphene, said: “In science, a no-deal Brexit would be like a severe drought for an orchard. You can’t expect to have a harvest after watering it again next year. All the trees are already dead.”

The warnings echo a statement by university leaders, who warned MPs in an open letter in January that leaving the EU without a deal would be “an academic, cultural and scientific setback from which it would take decades to recover”.

Meanwhile, Adrian Smith, the author of a government report looking into the impact of a no-deal Brexit for science – which has yet to be published – said this week that the UK would have to create a global rival to the European Research Council if it leaves the EU without a deal, according to Science Business.

No-deal risk heightened

The risk of a no-deal heightened when Boris Johnson took over the premiership in July and installed a cabinet dominated by supporters of a hard Brexit.

He has pledged to “die in a ditch” rather than delay exiting the EU on 31 October, despite MPs passing legislation ordering him to request a delay to the UK’s departure if an agreement with the EU is not reached by 19 October, which is regarded as the last date by which a deal could be agreed in time to leave on schedule.

So far the proposals he has put forward for an alternative to the withdrawal agreement agreed between the EU and former prime minister Theresa May – which was rejected repeatedly and overwhelmingly by MPs – have not been deemed remotely sufficient by the EU to tie up a deal at the European Council meeting on 17-18 October.

A key sticking point was differences on the issue of how to avoid creating a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

However, intensive talks were due to take place this weekend following positive noises made after Johnson met his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar on Thursday and the latter declared that a pathway to a deal was still possible.

A key concern of researchers is that a no-deal Brexit would leave the UK locked out of the EU’s research programme, Horizon 2020, and its successor Horizon Europe, the €94.1 billion programme that starts in 2021.

‘Biggest concern’

But Smith, who is director of the Alan Turing Institute in London, said this week that the “uniform” feedback he had received from UK researchers is that being locked out of the European Research Council (ERC) without access to its grants for basic research would be the biggest concern.

“Suppose there’s no access to the ERC after Brexit, we will have to invent our own. It’ll have to be bigger, brighter and pay better than the ERC,” he said.

British scientists have been receiving about £1 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year from the EU, including via Horizon 2020.

In January 2018, the UK universities minister told the House of Lords EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee that the government was aware that access to European Research Council and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions funding would be lost if the UK was to leave without a withdrawal deal, and that they were considering options for domestic alternatives to these programmes.

Universities UK has urged the government to set out its contingency plans for replacing access to single beneficiary Horizon 2020 funds, largely the ERC and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions. But that information has not been forthcoming.

Universities UK is also worried about the lack of contingency plans for replacing access to Erasmus+, the study and exchange scheme for staff and students.

Universities very concerned

As University World News reported last month, a survey of universities for Universities UK has shown that more than 80% of universities are either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ concerned about the impact a no-deal Brexit will have on their institution, including on student and staff recruitment and retention and access to research programmes and funding.

The League of European Research Universities argues that the UK should be able to fully associate with the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and the UK is ready to pay to participate in Horizon Europe, but there are worries that a disorderly Brexit would instead mean a severing of the UK’s close ties in science with EU member states.

Smith told an audience at Imperial College London on 8 October that the chances of UK scientists being left without access to ERC grants and other major EU funding streams had increased since he first embarked on writing his report in March.

He said to meet the challenge would require the government to “totally reverse our insane migration policies” and funding to “hunt talent”.

‘Flexible visas needed’

Flexible visas were needed to make the UK a “research magnet”, citing as an example the Alan Turing Institute’s £50 million international fellowship scheme for artificial intelligence researchers. He said the UK could learn a lot from China’s efforts at repatriating talent and needed an “agility fund” to be ready to take up collaborations with non-EU countries such as Singapore and Israel.

Currently the skills-based immigration plan for 2021 will require EU academics entering the UK after 2021 to pay for a visa, a compulsory English language test, a £2,000 Immigration Health Surcharge and a fee for registering biometric information.

And to qualify for a work visa, EU scholars will also need to earn a minimum of £30,000 a year, which will preclude most junior level academics.

In August Prime Minister Johnson instructed officials to devise a fast-track system to attract leading scientists to work in the UK.

In addition, in September he announced a new post-study work visa for international students graduating in the UK, allowing them to work in the UK for two years after graduation.

In 2016 the government guaranteed billions of pounds of UK government funding post-Brexit for projects currently funded by the EU, including science grants. Universities and researchers were to have funds guaranteed for research bids to the European Commission, including to Horizon 2020, but only if they were made before the Autumn Financial Statement in 2016.