Brexit is happening: what does it mean for science?

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
At 11 p.m. on 31 January, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. Although an 11-month transition period means the milestone will bring few immediate changes for researchers, the day marks the start of negotiations over the country’s future relationship with the bloc, including the United Kingdom’s role in EU science.

The UK government’s list of things to do before 31 December 2020 is ambitious. Its priority will be to secure a trade deal with the EU, to avoid potential chaos from trade barriers erected on 1 January 2021. The government also hopes to create a skills-based immigration system that would end freedom of movement for EU citizens into and out of the United Kingdom, as well as potentially introduce a raft of regulations covering everything from agriculture to aviation.

With Brexit under way, one of the many tasks for negotiators will be sorting out the country’s part in the EU’s next seven-year research programme, Horizon Europe, which will start on 1 January 2021. Any such agreement would normally come only after countries have agreed a trade deal.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00215-0
 
The effects of this are already being felt, unfortunately. Myself and all my colleagues lost our jobs at a University research centre last year.

The group had focused efforts on a European agency for funding because of ever dwindling UK investment. When the Brexit vote happened that agency announced there would be no more funding UK centres...
 
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Please keep posts strictly to the thread topic of the effect of Brexit on science. A reminder of the rule:
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Religion and politics are inherently divisive subjects, with limited relevance to ME/CFS. Accordingly it is not permitted to promote or critique any religion, spiritual belief, or the lack thereof. Politics may be discussed strictly in the context of ME, but must still avoid any generalizations about members or supporters of political parties.
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Ryan31337 said:
The effects of this are already being felt, unfortunately. Myself and all my colleagues lost our jobs at a University research centre last year.

The group had focused efforts on a European agency for funding because of ever dwindling UK investment. When the Brexit vote happened that agency announced there would be no more funding UK centres...
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Interesting.

This article suggests that there is a glut of available funding for biomedical research in the UK leading to concerns that it is crowding out research in other areas and isn't being spent productively :

https://www.theguardian.com/science...to-burst-the-biomedical-bubble-in-uk-research
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
That looks to me like a clear case of sour grapes. Not a single argument is produced to support the case - other than that those other meanies have lots of money.
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Maybe so but my point was that those other meanies (biomedical researchers) appear to have lots of money.
 
Marco said:
Maybe so but my point was that those other meanies (biomedical researchers) appear to have lots of money.
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So much so that they are laying off senior staff like there's no tomorrow.
The problem is not that too much money is going to biomedical research but that it is going to people interested in furthering personal ambition and not in getting the right answer to a scientific question. How you resolve that I don't know. There are plenty of biomedical problems starved of money - as we all know.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
So much so that they are laying off senior staff like there's no tomorrow.
The problem is not that too much money is going to biomedical research but that it is going to people interested in furthering personal ambition and not in getting the right answer to a scientific question. How you resolve that I don't know. There are plenty of biomedical problems starved of money - as we all know.
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Pardon me Jonathan but the gist I picked up in many discussions here was that as far as funding for ME/CFS was concerned (particularly with respect to the MRC) was that the funding would be there if there was any promising line of research to pursue.
 
Marco said:
Pardon me Jonathan but the gist I picked up in many discussions here was that as far as funding for ME/CFS was concerned (particularly with respect to the MRC) was that the funding would be there if there was any promising line of research to pursue.
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The situation is complicated. I think I would probably have turned down the great majority of applications for ME research, just as the funding bodies did. So maybe if good projects are put forward they will get funding - partly because ME is designate as a priority area in the UK. But there are a lot of useful projects in other areas that do not get funded. I don't actually think we have evidence of a contradiction. The system is a mess in many respects because of the people who dominate peer review. And as I said, I am not sure how you resolve that.
 
I regret that UK science groups, working on ME, are likely to find it more difficult to participate in EU research under Horizon Europe program.

@Simon M and @Andy have been involved in Chris Pointing's bid for UK (NIHR-MRC) funding for a GWAS study in ME.

We need more projects like Chris's funded in the UK and EU.

I think UK science will be weaker i.e. without access to EU funding; similarly EU science will be weaker without the participation of UK scientists.
 
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