Science graduates should scale back their hopes of finding work in the UK and cast their net wider, according to two of the UK's most influential scientists.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Prof Keith Campbell said decreasing levels of funding for British research meant would-be scientists should think globally when hunting for employment.

The pair made their comments on Sunday at an Edinburgh International Book Festival debate on the future of science.

Campbell was among the team of Edinburgh-based scientists who produced Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, in 1996. Bell Burnell is credited with revolutionising astronomy when she discovered the first pulsar as a PhD student at Cambridge University. Asked what they would do if they had newly graduated this summer, neither said they would stay in the UK. "With funding at the moment, getting a job in biological sciences is very difficult. Getting a postdoctoral position is very difficult, and getting one that is well funded to do research is very difficult in this country," said Campbell. "At the moment I think the research opportunities are in other places because of the basic economics of this country."

Campbell said he continues to carry out research on sheep, but funding holds him back. The sheep he bought to create Dolly cost him £1.50 each in 1996, he said. The same sheep would now cost £100.

"If I have 50 sheep for six months with housing, it costs me £85,000 and that's without staff," he added. "Research is not cheap. In Singapore not only can you do the research but you get paid a salary too. Being able to eat is quite useful."

"I'm not trying to put people off," he added. "You've got to love what you do and work 16 hours a day."

The science jobs market is tougher for women, said Bell Burnell, who has previously said she struggled to gain respect in a male-dominated field even after she had her 'Eureka moment'.

"I think a spell abroad for anybody is incredibly useful. It gives you a great sense of perspective and you see other ways of doing things," she said.

"For a young woman you probably have to go abroad while you're young and before you get attached to somebody and a family. Or, as I did, you go abroad about 50 when your family's left home.

"I positively encourage time abroad to anybody. It's worth taking the time to suss out which countries in the world are well funded for your subject and look for opportunities there."

Angela Saini, a science journalist and author of Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World, said graduates should "certainly not think locally".

"There are exciting opportunities all over the world. India and China may have a domestic demand at the moment but certainly Singapore and the US are good," she said. "We are globalised graduates now and I would certainly not think locally when thinking about getting a job. Just go anywhere you can to get research opportunities."