Does Brexit Spell Doom for British Scientists?

Yesterday the Washington Post published an article with the breathless headline “Britain’s Scientists Are Freaking Out over Brexit,” speculating on the supposedly disastrous consequences for researchers in the U.K. of Britain’s departure from the EU. To report that a country with such a rich history of academic excellence is “freaking out” at the prospect of regaining its sovereignty seems a trifle premature.

Researchers at British universities are concerned about how the country will make up for funding that came from the EU — about $1.2 billion per year, 10 percent of the total funding provided to research councils by government — once the U.K. withdraws. Before the referendum, ministers supportive of a Leave vote committed to maintain EU funding on areas such as education in a letter that stated in part, “There is more than enough money to ensure that those who now get funding from the EU — including universities, scientists, family farmers, regional funds, cultural organisations and others — will continue to do so while also ensuring that we save money that can be spent on our priorities.” But the academic community, which tended to support Remain, wants greater assurance.

They are worried that Brexit is putting their universities at a disadvantage in applying for grants to perform cutting-edge research. However, Nature reports that Gill Wells, an EU-funding consultant at the University of Oxford, “received assurances from the European Commission that there will be no bias against UK applicants for European Research Council grants.” While biased bureaucrats may not adhere to that policy, evidence that British applicants are being discriminated against is anecdotal and limited. In the absence of certainty on British policy going forward, gloomy predictions are filling the void.

The Post also reports that researchers at British institutions are worried that Brexit makes the U.K. isolated and its scientists unable to collaborate with other Europeans. Will Brexit turn scientists at Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh into unattractive research partners? That seems doubtful. And while Brexit entails changing the immigration system, it appears that the U.K.’s top schools will still be able to attract top talent.

Global prestige and top-level academic researchers can withstand some uncertainty, even in the wake of such an earth-shattering catastrophe as Brexit. It’s also clear that membership in the EU is not the only path to maintaining elite research universities. Switzerland and Norway have survived their absence from the EU to carry on research partnerships with top universities in other countries, and the U.K.’s institutions are even more prestigious.

Moves by Theresa May’s government also indicate that it is serious about maintaining the U.K.’s standing in higher education, which the Post notes in the 14th paragraph. At any rate, as British withdrawal from the EU will take some time to negotiate, British universities will not face a funding crisis in the immediate future. What’s more, the idea that Brexit would destroy Britain’s ability to fund research and collaborate with other scholars around the continent in the long term gives the EU too much credit. British universities have enough standing in the world that they need not be dependent on a European bloc.