A total of 22 UK-based scientists have now decided to leave Britain rather than lose their EU research funding, as uncertainty continues around the future of Research and Development (R&D) support post-Brexit.
Scientists and engineers have told Sky News the UK’s position as a world leader in research is at risk from “significant brain drain” amid doubts about what will replace funding after negotiations with the European Union stalled.
The UK was negotiating a deal to remain in the EU’s £84billion Horizon Europe funding programme.
However, Brussels is refusing to resume talks until other Brexit-related disagreements such as Northern Ireland are solved.
If unsuccessful, the government has committed to match the EU funding already awarded to any researchers who already have grants.
But because many existing research programmes are EU wide, that promise is not enough for some researchers.
“Nobody told me I have to leave, but it wasn’t a welcoming environment,” said Moritz Treeck who leads a team studying malaria at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
“I didn’t want to take the insecurity of the condition of this research grant of staying the UK and the implications for all the people I hire.”
Treeck, originally from Germany, says the opportunities offered by working in UK science were “huge”. But now the situation looks different.
“Saying you want to build an economy and you want to be an international superpower and then facing inwards… I feel that it’s a step back, not a step forward,” he said.
Researchers who have no intention of leaving the UK say the impasse over Horizon funding is also impacting the UK’s long standing leadership role in international collaborations.
Professor Carsten Welsch is head of the physics department at the University of Liverpool and runs a programme developing new…
Source : skynews
