1Introduction
Background
1.Our predecessor committee published its report on Leaving the EU: Implications and opportunities for science and research in November 2016.1 The report set out a number of priority issues for the science and research communities which the Government would need to address during the forthcoming Brexit negotiations:
- Funding—in particular the need either to secure ongoing access to sources such as the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme and its successors, or to develop appropriate domestic funding mechanisms at a similar level if access is not negotiated;
- People—specifically the attractiveness of the UK to EU researchers (as well as those further afield) as a place to live, work and study, and the need to provide guarantees for those already working here;
- Collaboration, leadership and influence—for UK researchers to be part of multinational projects, and to continue to influence the EU’s research agenda and strategic direction;
- Regulation—ensuring that those regulations which facilitate research collaboration and access to the EU market for life science and other research outputs are retained, and those which hinder innovation are revised; and
- Facilities—concerns about the ability of UK researchers to continue to access EU research facilities in other countries, and the need to protect the future of those that are currently hosted in the UK.2
2.In September 2017, the Government published its ‘Future Partnership’ paper on collaboration on science and innovation, which purports to set out “the UK’s objectives for an ambitious science and innovation agreement with the EU”.3 However—as Professor Chris Whitty, the Government’s Interim Chief Scientific Adviser, told us—this document is “high on aspiration and a bit light on detail”.4 The Government has also now established a ‘High Level Stakeholder Working Group on EU Exit, Universities, Research and Innovation’, with an emphasis on “considering all factors related to research and innovation that need to be taken into account as Government policy develops”.5 Meanwhile, ‘Phase 2’ of the Brexit negotiations commenced in March 2018, and action must now be taken to address the concerns and opportunities outlined in our predecessor’s report, with an adequate level of detail provided on the Government’s intentions in this area.
3.UK science is entering the Brexit process from a strong starting position. As the Government’s Future Partnership paper notes, the UK is home to four of the world’s top ten universities, and has more Nobel Laureates than any country outside the United States.6 We were told that the UK is second only to Germany in EU project participation,7 and reminded that the Government’s £4.7bn increase to the UK’s research and development budget by 2020/21 represents the biggest increase in public R&D investment since 1979.8 The Government has also made a commitment to increase R&D spending as a proportion of GDP to 2.4% by 2027.9
Our inquiry
4.In January 2018 we called for written submissions to inform our work, and received over 80 responses. This material was used to inform a summit we held on Brexit, science and innovation at the Institution of Civil Engineers on 22 February, with over fifty representatives from the community.10 We invited the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation—Sam Gyimah MP—to address the summit. Having previously recommended that the Department for Exiting the European Union appoint its own Chief Scientific Advisor, we were pleased that the appointee to this new role (Chris Jones) was also able to attend to listen to the discussions. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to our work.
5.We held an oral evidence session with the Minister on 6 March to follow up on the issues explored at the summit and raised in written evidence. The Minister previewed a paper his department were due to publish later that day on the European Commission’s consultation on the structure and priorities for Framework Programme 9. This was one of several developments in the last few days with a bearing on science and innovation after Brexit. A report published by the Wellcome Trust on the day of our summit suggested that there was scope for a dedicated science and innovation agreement to be drawn up as part of the Brexit negotiations:
Some of the solutions [The Wellcome Trust] propose will need to be included in a formal agreement, which could be a chapter within an EU–UK trade deal or a stand-alone research and innovation agreement. There are precedents for the latter—for example, Israel is associated to Horizon-2020 through a scientific and technological agreement with the EU, but also has an overarching association agreement with the EU.11
The Prime Minister’s Mansion House speech on 2 March reinforced the idea of such an agreement being negotiated, with reference to the Government’s desire for a “far-reaching science and innovation pact”.12 On 7 March the European Commission published its draft guidelines for the Brexit negotiations,13 and on 6 March a draft European Parliament motion on the Brexit deal was published in the media.14
6.The need for clarity about the future shape of the UK’s post-Brexit science and innovation relationship with the EU has been put into a stronger focus in the light of these developments, and we intend to visit Brussels in the coming months to follow up on many of the points raised through our work. Our report focuses on what steps the Government needs to take now to ensure that the UK retains and builds on its leadership position in science and innovation in the context of leaving the EU. In particular, we are publishing our report in order to influence the Government’s approach to ‘Phase 2’ of the Brexit negotiations.
1 Science and Technology Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2016–17, Leaving the EU: implications and opportunities for science and research, HC 502
2 Science and Technology Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2016–17, Leaving the EU: implications and opportunities for science and research, HC 502, para 27
3 HM Government, Collaboration on science and innovation: future partnership paper (6 September 2017), para 3
4 Oral evidence taken on 17 October 2017, HC (2017–19) 437, Q11
5 Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, ‘Terms of reference and membership: high level stakeholder working group on EU exit, universities, research and innovation’, accessed 9 March 2018
6 HM Government, Collaboration on science and innovation: future partnership paper (6 September 2017), para 4
7 Q63 [Amanda Dickins]
8 Evidence taken on 17 October 2017, HC 438, Q30 [Jo Johnson]
9 HM Government, Collaboration on science and innovation: future partnership paper (6 September 2017), para 5
11 Wellcome Trust, Building a strong future for European Science: Brexit and beyond (February 2018), p7
12 Gov.uk, ‘PM speech on our future economic partnership with the European Union’, 2 March 2018
13 Council of the European Union, European Council (Art.50) (23 March 2018)—Draft guidelines (7 March 2018)
14 “May ‘double cherry-picking’ on Brexit, says leaked EU report”, The Guardian, 6 March 2018
Published: 21 March 2018