SCIENTISTS in Britain were left more shaken than most after the EU referendum on June 23rd. About 10% of the money for research in British universities comes from the EU and 17% of academics in the country are citizens of other EU states. No wonder, then, that informal polling before the referendum showed a large majority in favour of continued membership of the union. Since the vote to leave, uncertainty over funding and the government’s tough talk about tightening immigration controls after Brexit have further rattled nerves.

Now MPs have given warning that such uncertainties threaten to undermine scientific collaboration in Britain. In a report published on November 18th the House of Commons science and technology select committee called for an “immediate commitment” from the government to exempt EU researchers already working in Britain from any future immigration controls. Guaranteeing the status of those currently in the country “is one way the government could reduce that uncertainty right away”, says Stephen Metcalfe, the committee’s chairman.

The MPs also argued that post-Brexit immigration rules for scientists should be laid down even before the government has decided what rules to apply to other workers, so that Britain can continue to attract the best scientific researchers in the face of competition from other countries. “It is not really a question of us allowing talented scientists and engineers to come here,” Sarah Main, the director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CASE), a lobby group, told MPs during the inquiry. “It is about us fighting for them to come here.”

The committee also urged the newly formed Department for Exiting the European Union to appoint a chief scientific adviser. CASE argues that scientific input will be necessary in order to strike good trade deals: it gives the example of writing regulations for solar panels, which will suit Britain best if they take account of the country’s gloomy weather.

Like other industries, science is jostling for the government’s attention ahead of the Autumn Statement, an annual mini-budget which the chancellor, Philip Hammond, is due to deliver on November 23rd. Public and private spending on research and development in Britain, at 1.6-1.7% of GDP between 1996 and 2014, lags the EU average of about 2% of GDP. The MPs’ committee said that the government should aim to raise spending in Britain to 3% of GDP. That echoes calls from the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group, and some of Britain’s national academies of science. Next week they will find out what place science has in the government’s much vaunted but so far obscure “industrial strategy”.