Brit Science Minister to probe Brexit bias against UK-based scientists

[LurkingHusband]

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/uk_science_minister_to_investigate_discrimination_cases_against_british_scientists_after_brexit/

Jo Johnson, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, has announced that that he has set up an email account to receive evidence that UK scientists have been discriminated against after Brexit.

A confidential survey of the UK’s Russell Group universities found cases where British researchers were being asked to give up their leadership roles and were being dropped from EU projects for fear of being a “financial liability”, The Guardian reported.

Worries that Britain may be an unattractive partner due to funding issues have spread. The paper relates one case of an EU project officer advising that all UK researchers be ousted from a project as their funding may not be guaranteed, and could delay the project which is due to start in 2017.

Speaking at a Science and Technology Committee meeting this morning, Johnson said he wanted to turn any “anecdotal evidence” of discrimination into “concrete evidence”.

“I’m still waiting for hard concrete evidence - but I’m not saying [discrimination] is not happening,” said Johnson.

Professor Phillip Nelson, Chair of Research Councils UK, also a witness at the meeting, said he had seen cases where scientists were afraid of working in the UK.

He spoke of an email he had received which said that the University of Glasgow was having a hard time attracting a “top physicist” because the physicist feared their projects may not be funded.

But whether these were “knee-jerk reactions” post-Brexit was hard to say, Nelson said.

Johnson said he had spoken to Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. A spokesperson on Moedas’ team said that the validity of the UK in Horizon 2020, Europe’s largest research and innovation funding programme, remains unchanged.

A “vast majority” of funding comes from Horizon 2020 for innovation programmes, said Kevin Baughan, Chief Development Officer at Innovate UK, which reports to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). He estimated that €680m had been spent into business and innovation, making the UK the second highest recipient after Germany.

Baughan warned that the UK “cannot afford to have a two year pause” in participation with EU projects if it wanted to stay at the forefront of innovation.

Any formal negotiations with the EU will not begin until after Article 50 is triggered, at which point the UK will have two years to negotiate arrangements for its breakup with the EU, including the outlining of any future relationship

Colour me surprised !

More specific examples from Jo Johnson's email inbox www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36835566

The biggest recipient of Horizon2020 funding last year? A British university, UCL. €73.2 million over 55 projects, from shale gas exploitation to e-infrastructure.

I can't see the UK government replacing that.

It's not just direct funding. Warwick have already been eliminated from a public / private collaboration as the commercial side didn't want to risk partnering with a UK institution which no longer had definite Horizon2020 access.

Do we listen to experts ?? Or do we not listen to them??

When you say "listen to", do you mean accept what they say unquestioningly? Are all experts the same with the same views? (you might think so, with the homogenous groups the remain side put forward).

The "experts" that the leave side had enough of are those who gain money and/or power and political influence via the EU and its corporate connections. Clearly they are very biased and they were gathered en masse to give repeated warnings. Real expert discussion includes disagreement and debate, and that was blatantly missing, hence the leave side smelling a rat.

Groundbreaking research is very different and yes, needs to be properly funded, not only for science but all other academic disciplines. No doubt this question will arise and be debated in parliament so I look forward to the result.

Is it not very likely the UK would become an Horizon 2020 Associated Country under the same conditions as EU Member States?

Is it not very likely the UK would become an Horizon 2020 Associated Country under the same conditions as EU Member States?

One would hope so but who knows? It depends on how skilled our negotiators are.

Is it not very likely the UK would become an Horizon 2020 Associated Country under the same conditions as EU Member States?

I think we will too, but something needs to be done quickly (a commitment by the government to continue paying into it) or a lot of damage will be done in the meantime.

Are all experts the same with the same views?

Gee, dunno. How do you stand on climate change? How about evolution by natural selection? Germ theory? Relativity?

Is it not very likely the UK would become an Horizon 2020 Associated Country under the same conditions as EU Member States?

Horizon2020 is not the only stream of EU research funding, there are others that are likely to be gone too. But meanwhile, see what geeka said above about timescales even to sort out Horizon2020.

UK researchers are not all suckling at the EU teat and depending solely on it for funding (before anyone starts on this) but what do you think the loss of some 15% of funding is going to do to the sector overall, in which there is already intense competition?

I would hope that no Leaver is seriously expecting that a significant portion of our best academics and their collaborators (academic and private) will just pause here in the UK, mothballing projects and equipment, freezing PhD and postdoctoral recruitment, patiently watching while researchers elsewhere get the investments and the people, get on with discovering and inventing things, get the results and the publications?

If I was a bright young PhD student or postdoc or group leader from anywhere in the world looking around for where I want to go and what projects to do, right now I would not be looking at the UK - multiply that by hundreds of people who will be going elsewhere until all the dust settles in tum-ti-tum years and we can see whether UK science is still the bloody awesome biz it used to be. I mean, we're all really big with the "getting on with our lives" thing aren't we?

Damn, did I kill the thread?

Never mind, here's more awesomely optimistic science news:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/science-research-hit-by-brexit

Looks like it's true

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/05/brit_scientist_exclusion_from_eu_funding/

An article on the website of Nature, one of the most important scientific periodicals in the UK.
www.nature.com/news/e-mails-show-how-uk-physicists-were-dumped-over-brexit-1.20380

As I have said before, it looks as though UK researchers are being frozen out because organisers / coordinators don't want including them to pose any risk to their bids for funding in a very competitive environment. A quote from a coordinator in the article:

"The Brexit vote put the UK-based researches in a very awkward position. I have been thinking a lot and talking with many people, either related or not to the ITN. Unfortunately, the general consensus was that it is preferable to exclude the UK members. The main argument is a sort of ‘precaution principle’: provided the confusion, incertitude and lack of information about the rules for the EU projects (will they change? if yes, how?) the easiest solution was removing the problem at its root, which meant excluding the UK members from the ITN network.

It is a drastic solution and it may seem extreme. Nevertheless, as a (virtual) coordinator it is my duty to maximise the chances of obtaining the grant. Any possible weakness of the consortium must be avoided and, despite the excellent scientific contribution from the Sheffield group, I feel that their participation after the Brexit vote, would compromise the project."

Note: ITN stands for Innovative Training Network (ITN), a type of multinational project to assist research into a particular field, with costs that often run into hundreds of thousands of euros

ITNs are primarily to fund the training of PhD students - so we're potentially losing a generation of new researchers.

This just makes me so sad and angry, speaking as one with two children in scientific/medical research institutes. People just don't realise how tight research funding is.

Peregrina exactly And what I've seen on this topic is lots of airy hand waving "There are other funding streams, you know (Golly, really? I bet no scientist ever knew that until now)" or "We're sure to have it sorted when we final Brexit in xyz years (And the world's science is just going to sit and wait for the great and glorious us? And talented researchers are going to put their lives/careers on hold meanwhile?)" and, my personal favourite, "We don't really need to do this research stuff, we can just Google everything."

There are not enough in the world to accurately represent my thoughts on the matter.

People allowed themselves to be lied to. Because a lot of people don't like foreigners. Brexit was at base a narrow-minded expression of xenophobia.

I do have to admit that the Remain camp didn't make their case very well. The booklet from the government was very thin on content. If they could have made the case about how some of our world class research feeds the quality of treatment we can offer in the NHS then the case would have been much stronger.

I know a couple of thoughtful people who voted Leave, who now feel quite sick about what has happened and are annoyed at how easily they were duped.

Meanwhile ...

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/13/uk_must_attract_eu_scientists_brexit/

Attracting and retaining EU talent remains a top concern for UK science following Brexit, according to today’s House of Lords Select Committee meeting about EU membership and UK science.

David Phoenix, vice-chancellor and chief executive of London South Bank University, Patrick Vallance, president of pharmaceuticals R&D at GlaxoSmithKline, and David Greenaway, vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham and chairman of the Russell Group of universities, were invited to give evidence at the hearing.

All three agreed that attracting European students and staff members to the UK was necessary for a thriving scientific research community.

Vallance said GSK “recruited heavily” from European countries and EU researchers added a “vibrant culture” to the company’s R&D sector.

EU students are added talent for Russell Group universities as they were skewed towards STEM subjects and an early career in research, Greenaway said.

Many scientists have voiced similar concerns. In a letter to The Times, Stephen Hawking and more than 150 Royal Society fellows warned that leaving the EU would be a “disaster for science”.

“We now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here. Being able to attract and fund the most talented Europeans assures the future of British science and also encourages the best scientists elsewhere to come here,” the letter said.

Although Prime Minister Theresa May hasn’t been explicit about cracking down on immigration following the referendum, her new government has been harsher to international students. In particular, the Prime Minister backed a decision to restrict the number of student visas issued.

Students hoping to stay in the UK after graduation must apply for a Tier 2 visa, which requires them to earn a minimum salary of £20,800. For experienced workers, the minimum threshold will rise from £20,800 to £25,000 in autumn 2016, and will rise again to £30,000 in April 2017.

Early-stage researchers may not make the £30,000 cut off, Greenaway said. The added bureaucracy following Brexit could put EU students off from applying to study in the UK as well as concerns over whether they would still be eligible for student finance.

The government should consider "[taking] EU students out of the net migration target”, Greenaway urged. ®

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/17/eu-countries-rush-steal-uk-based-research-projects

Lamb, a minister until last year, said that the development would be a “hammer blow” for British jobs and research. “While the divided Tory government struggles to find a workable plan for Brexit, other European countries are already fighting over the spoils,” he said. “Britain’s thriving pharmaceutical industry would be dealt a hammer blow through the loss of the European medicines agency, which is crucial for attracting foreign investment.

China just announced £200m for UK scientific research.

Corcory are you referring to this?
www.newtonfund.ac.uk/news/230916/

Which appears to refer to a deal that was announced in 2014.
www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-china-agree-multi-milion-pound-global-research-deals

AKA the Newton Fund

So not a new announcement, then.

Meanwhile, UK universities are looking to offshore into the EU

www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/23/uk_profs_mull_euro_move/

Presumably they are taking back control ?

Same story on the Guardian website
www.theguardian.com/education/2016/sep/22/uk-universities-mull-eu-campuses-in-new-era-of-uncertainty

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford is also expressing concern.

She's also dismissive of the Education Green paper's proposals for Universities to set up feeder schools. Which is nothing to do with Brexit, except the idea wouldn't have been mooted if Cameron were still in power.

Oxford University has been around for 800 years or so, so I think it can weather whatever comes in the next 50 years.

These were, I believe, the scientists TM was referring to when bigging up our prowess in scientific research in her "lovely" speech (and failing to mention that they were all not here).

www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/06/brexit-not-good-news-for-british-science-warn-new-nobel-laureates

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/leaving-eu-is-a-disaster-nobel-scientists-warn-06t5lnctt

One of the four British scientists awarded a Nobel prize this week has said he is considering renouncing his citizenship because of Brexit.

Two of the other new laureates, all of whom now work in the US, have joined him in criticising the decision to leave the EU, with one saying it may change his mind about returning to the UK.