Here’s what a no-deal Brexit could mean for Science Staffing: A significant 35 per cent of scientists working in UK universities are from overseas – 21 per cent from […]

Staffing:

A significant 35 per cent of scientists working in UK universities are from overseas – 21 per cent from the EU and 14 per cent from non-EU countries, according to the Campaign for Science and Engineering.

It’s really important to recruit the best staff from all over the world and that will become much harder under a no deal Brexit.

Lose rights overnight

That’s because suddenly EU citizens will have no rights – something that will be felt most acutely in terms of their healthcare benefits. People will suddenly not have rights to the NHS and will have to get independent insurance – something that will become prohibitively expensive if they have an ongoing condition.

People from outside the EU may be in a similar position but they would have known this before moving here so they would have come with their eyes open and may have taken steps to deal with it.

In this case, however, EU citizens will suddenly lose many of their rights overnight.

Making up some of any staffing shortfall from other countries outside the EU will help a bit, but it is key for scientific institutions to pick the very best people from around the word, whichever country they are from – and recent decades suggest that will often be from Europe.

Jobs:

A no-deal Brexit could see Britain lose as many as 92,000 science and technology jobs by 2030, a report by Cambridge Econometrics found in January.

This would leave the UK with 6,507,000 science and technology workers in a no Brexit scenario – compared to 6,599,000 if the country stayed in the single market and customs union.

Collaborations:

Under an existing wide-ranging agreement with the EU, the UK made a commitment to underwrite any EU funding until the end of 2020.

This gave certainty to the overseas institutions in any international collaboration that the project won’t fall into financial difficulties when Britain leaves Europe.

There had been concerns that in the event of no deal, that agreement will become void. This would mean UK researchers would not receive any more EU funding or will have to leave existing projects straight after Brexit, putting those projects into jeopardy.

Becomes harder with no deal

This would make it considerably harder for UK institutions to participate in the kind of prestigious pan-European collaborations that have put the country at the forefront of global science.

Mindful of these concerns, however, the Treasury took decisive action on Tuesday, renewing its pledge to guarantee any funding secured through EU programmes until the end of 2020. This appears to have headed off that threat.

Even so, despite the government guarantee a no deal Brexit could hurt collaborations, as other ramifications, such as recruitment problems, make UK institutions less attractive potential partners.

Figures released last September found that UK participation in Horizon 2020 – the name of the EU international collaboration scheme – had fallen by a fifth (from 15 per cent to 12 per cent) compared to six months earlier.

Funds:

Funding for science should be robust in the event of a no deal Brexit. That’s because, apart from guaranteeing any EU grants until the end of 2020, the government has pledged to hike UK investment into scientific research from 1.7 per cent of GDP to 2.4 per cent within 10 years.

This would add around £12bn to Britain’s annual research and development budgets, easily making up for the £1.5bn of research cash it gets each year from the EU that will be lost after Brexit.

However, critics point out that the hike is only a goal, which the government has limited power to deliver because it typically only provides around a third of the country’s R&D spending with the rest coming from the private sector, charities and overseas investors. So while the government can keep its end of the bargain – it cannot guarantee the other two thirds.

Scientists also draw a distinction between quality and quantity of funds – arguing that a pound spent on a prestigious multinational European collaboration is typically worth much more than one spent on a national project.

Medical supplies and laboratory equipment:

Labs need a lot of specialist supplies from abroad – chemicals, organs, tissue samples, radio isotopes used to diagnose and treat cancer and so on – that are often perishable and need special storage conditions.

Leaving the customs union and very likely the single VAT area will considerably slow down the rate at which they can be imported, putting some of the projects they are used for at risk. The extra spot checks, new tariffs and other administration will also increase the cost.