Brexit is possibly one of the most difficult situations ever faced by United Kingdom in recent times. Nobody has a clear prediction for what its long-term consequences are going to be for the country, should UK definitely decide to leave EU, but what has been pretty clear in these past months is that, among those who advocated Brexit, few saw the big picture and the full spectrum of the repercussion that this event would have had on the country’s health, economy and, quite relevant to our cause, science.
Although a first draft of the EU-leaving deal has been recently realised and, according to yesterday’s Nature website editorial, it unexpectedly contains a few references regarding science, key issues on this topic still remain quite shady, and keep projecting an uncertainty that’s been passively damaging UK scientific research in the past months.
Some crucial examples of the topics the deal has poorly covered concern the nature of UK future involvement in EU funding programmes and how eventually UK scientists will be allowed to apply for related grants, as well as the immigration policies for foreign scientists, including those already working on british soil or the future ones.
Much still remains to be decided and this means that, on the bright side, there’s still space for discussion, but UK scientists and their advocates must keep pushing on how a Brexit that leaves scientific research weakened will be bad for the entire country, and how much this topic should be kept in mind during negotiations for EU.