A month on from the EU referendum result, academics across the country are finding they already are having to cope with the fallout from the decision to leave the EU. We spoke to four, from a range of universities:





‘Instead of restoring peatland, we’re taking a step back’

Mark Reed (above) professor of social innovation at Newcastle University

“Before the referendum I felt full of hope. We were applying for €10m of funding from the European commission’s Life programme – a pot set up to protect the environment and tackle climate change through EU policy and legislation. The money was for an ambitious 10-year project to restore at least a million hectares of peatland in the UK.

Peatlands are this country’s biggest source of carbon and their restoration is a vital part of our efforts to tackle climate change, water management and biodiversity conservation.

The British government has already invested millions of pounds in generating evidence to underpin a draft strategy for restoring the UK’s peatlands and this grant would have been enough to implement it.

For me, it was personal – the culmination of 12 years’ work. Others in the project team had invested similar time and effort.

But the probability of us continuing to get access to funds like Life now is low. Why would the EU continue to give up funds designed to implement EU environmental legislation to a country withdrawing from the EU that wants to reduce regulation?

The UK government has funded research that has provided an incredibly strong evidence base for environmental protections. But all the progress may be under threat if a post-Brexit government moves in the opposite direction to European conservation legislation.

Instead of achieving our goal of restoring a million hectares of peatlands by 2020, we may end up taking a step back in conservation terms – so we urgently need to find new ways of funding the application of research.

I still hope we can continue engaging in EU projects such as Horizon 2020, but I feel disappointed and frustrated about the situation now. I have always been proud that Britain leads the world in research that makes a difference. If we want to solve society’s greatest challenges then we shouldn’t create boundaries in the scientific community.

There is too much to do and too much worth fighting for to give up, however. Perhaps science might become one of the few ways we can cross the boundaries created by Brexit and continue working together towards a better European environment.”

‘EU cancer researchers are worried about involving UK colleagues’

Photograph: Edward Moss Photography

Dr Farhat Khanim, research fellow at the University of Birmingham’s school of biosciences

“I’m furious about the referendum. My colleagues and I collaborate with many colleagues in Europe, including on our cancer prevention programme, and we’re finding we have to start conversations by discussing Brexit and its implications for funding given the current uncertainty.

EU colleagues are concerned that it’s going to be harder to make our joint projects succeed and they are worried about having UK team members involved. There is a feeling that, given the competitive nature of grant funding, including UK groups in proposals will increase the risk that a European funding proposal will be rejected.

Dr Farhat Khanim and her science colleagues at Birmingham make clear their feelings about Brexit.

Many of our European students and academics have expressed anxiety about their future in this country. We’ll have to work hard to make sure we don’t take a step back as a scientific community. In science, as it should be in every walk of life, it is one’s ability that matters, not one’s nationality or gender.

That’s why we decided to take this photo [pictured above] and circulate it on social media. But by voting for Brexit, Britons have given the impression that we care more about borders than diversity and ability. I’m heartbroken about that.”

‘My post-92 university relies on EU funding’

Dr Keith Baker, researcher in sustainable urban environments, Glasgow Caledonian University

“I’ve got a research post at a post-92 university that relies heavily on European funding. My research – on fuel poverty, energy and the built environment, and sustainable building materials – involves a lot of collaboration with colleagues at European universities.

One of the European research consortia I’m part of has spent months writing a large research proposal to the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme, which is supported by the European regional development fund. On 29 June, we were sent an email stating that the deadline for submissions was being postponed by two months as a consequence of Brexit. The email warned more detailed instructions may need to be given about “the involvement of UK partners” and stated the new deadline could be further extended.

It’s a scary time for me. My career is research based and I’m finding all this uncertainty depressing and demotivating. I worry that Oxbridge and the redbricks will start targeting more of the non-European funding that the post-92s [former polytechnics] have traditionally done well out of, for example from trusts and charities, as well as dominating funding from the UK research councils. That could knock out a lot of the research I can do, and have a detrimental effect on my career. I am also concerned talented colleagues could simply leave the UK and go where there is more certain funding.”

’The joint European master’s I’m developing is on hold’

Dr Aleksej Heinze, senior lecturer at the University of Salford’s business school

“For the past three years I’ve spent 20% of my time developing a joint European master’s course in digital marketing with colleagues at four other European universities. We received €390,000 of European funding to put the course together, and the University of Salford contributed another £47,000 in addition to contributions from European university partners.

We researched the demand for digital marketing skills and developed training material which will be published as a book. The aim was to offer our students a cutting-edge degree endorsed by five universities in Europe, which would include European study and internships.

However, following the referendum there is uncertainty about whether UK universities will continue to comply with the EU agreements that surround the European credit transfer and accumulation system, which allows students to transfer credits between courses at different European universities.

This uncertainty makes it difficult for other universities to endorse a course taught in the UK, and everyone has been much less enthusiastic about our involvement as a result. Forthcoming meetings have been put on hold.

I had hoped to start the course in September 2017, but I think that is now unlikely. We will still teach a digital marketing course using the book and materials we’ve developed – but probably in parallel to the other universities, so we will not learn from each other. And instead of teaching our students how to help UK businesses tap into the European market, we will have to be more narrow minded and focus on the UK market, because we cannot run the course on a European scale.

It makes me sad to think my students will miss out – and it will disadvantage them and the companies they would be working for.”

• A petition to preserve the UK’s access to EU collaborative research and development programmes has gathered about 30,000 signatures in a fortnight. If it reaches 100,000 signatures it will be debated in parliament.