Not all is lost for the UK's science and tech communities following the nation's shock vote to leave the EU and its generous cushion of science funding, at least according to three senior members of Oxford University's startup ecosystem.

Provided the principle of freedom of movement remains, so UK science and tech firms are still able to recruit the top talent from Europe, they believe that the sector should be able to weather the storm. However, according to Alex Caccia the co-founder of microdrone firm Animal Dynamics, "if we can't look for talent from Europe, it will be a very significant brake" on his firm's ability to scale up, and would "call into question whether we should stay in the UK or go somewhere else."

Speaking to Ars during British Science Week last week, Caccia, whose startup was successfully spun out of work conducted by the university's zoology department, said that access to top engineers will be make-or-break for science in the UK.

There is not the depth of skill in this country to [go it alone]. It would be a terrible shame both for UK business and for the talent that wants to come and work here if we got rid of freedom of movement. I'm hopeful that sense will prevail. It is a very, very serious issue as far as the UK economy is concerned.

That's not to say that future funding is not still an issue. According to Caccia, sources like the European Investment Fund have been crucial in helping startups hold on to the best engineers in the face of predatory hiring by established companies. His colleague Adrian Thomas, an Oxford professor of biomechanics, agrees: "It would be useful to have access to the EU research funding both for academics and for startups, but the world's not going to end if we leave the EU."

However, he added that without any funding, the science scene will definitely be hurt.

"We don't know how much of a disaster Brexit is for science, because we don't know what will happen to EU funding," he said. "My group currently has £3 million in EU funding over the next five years—that's a colossal amount, and pivotal for the zoology department. The government has promised to keep research funding going until 2020. Beyond that, however, it looks as though there's going to be a vast source of funding that will become unavailable to us."

That said, the sector still needs a culture change. The distance between and infrastructure shared by Oxford, Cambridge, and London should be more conducive to doing business than the sprawl of Silicon Valley, Caccia contends, but he still can't see the next huge property coming from anywhere other than California. Why? The talent is here in Europe, he said, but the "scale of ambition" is not. American businesses are agile, and better at building and scaling, and at bringing the best people in to manage, to market, and even perform HR and legal roles.

It is essential that UK tech businesses embrace the other factors that make a business a success. We have one of the largest and most diverse capital markets in the world on our doorstep. Why couldn't Oxford, Imperial College, and London's expertise in finance and marketing become Silicon Valley and New York combined? There's no reason why it shouldn't—apart from culture and scale of ambition.

One thing the UK is finally getting right, according to Evert Geurtsen, who helps run Oxford University Innovation, which supports commercial spin-outs at the university, is the private investment structure. "When it comes to investors," he told Ars, "we now have almost as much money in the UK as you would do anywhere in the world. All the major research universities in the UK are now associated with very large funds in the hundreds of millions of pounds, with follow-on money from investors. We're beginning to solve that part of the investment environment."

The success stories aren't as numerous as those from American universities like MIT, which spins out hundreds of firms ("most of which go to the wall very quickly," said Adrian), but Oxford has had its share of hits. Most recent of these is Animal Dynamics, whose Skeeter dragonfly drones are making their way onto global military wishlists, but Oxitec was sold for £120 million to Intrexon in 2015, and is now on the frontline in the battle against Zika in the USA. Games company NaturalMotion was meanwhile bought for $527 million (£397 million) by Zynga in 2014.

Nevertheless, Oxford is incubating at a greater rate now. Five years ago, said Evert, the university would spin out perhaps four companies per year. In the last 12 months, however, "we've created 15 science-based spin-outs and a number of idea-based entrepreneurial ventures as well," with £315 million raised in funding.

"Those 15 companies encompass all aspects of science: cancer, therapeutics, immunology, software," he added. "We have a company that's in the advanced stage of bringing to the market a pocket sized DNA analysis instrument."

The key to it all, however, is making sure that the talent can enter the country, and can be persuaded to take the risk of working with startups, rather than taking what Evert described as the "criminal amounts of rewards" offered by big firms, who obviously also want the best engineers. But if we can get the environment right—and the government doesn't commit suicide by Brexit—the future for the UK science and tech scene could still be rosy.