Scientists face hard choices as UK prepares to abandon EU projects for years to come

POLITICO
By Cristina Gallardo
August 17, 2022 11:36 pm

"LONDON — British-based scientists face agonizing decisions over the future of their world-leading research projects as the U.K. moves closer to quitting the EU’s massive R&D funding scheme this fall.

The British government’s decision to trigger formal dispute talks over Brussels’ refusal to sign off on its participation in EU science schemes, including the €95.5-billion Horizon Europe, has deepened concerns among researchers and universities that the U.K. is poised to pull out altogether.

The European Commission has chosen to link Britain’s previously-agreed involvement in Horizon Europe projects with the ongoing row over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland. In an increasingly bitter tit-for-tat dispute, neither side looks likely to back down."

Full article at: https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-researchers-fears-britain-quit-eu-science-funding/

Health is a major arm of the €90 billion+ Horizon project https://hadea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon-europe/health_en - €4.8 billion 2021-27. Brexit didn't make the UK exit from Horizon inevitable and leaving Horizon is going to impact all areas of UK research - it's impossible to say what the long term effect on ME/CFS research will be but the UK leaving Horizon is likely to be a net negative.

 

I rather suspect that leaving the EU system will just remove one layer of bureaucracy and politics and make life easier for UK scientists. There are always vocal people complaining about funding the building of their empires.

 

What good is cutting bureaucracy if there's no funding? Getting a grant is hard enough, cutting out a major source of funding is going to drive a lot of labs under, and a lot of great scientists out of the country.
CFS/ME research hasn't been a high priority and doesn't have a great return in terms of profit or papers. When the cuts hit, I think we're going to feel it.

 

We may have to outsource all of our world class BPS abusive research into how to torture and demean unpopular/undeserving patients to Europe.

 

Does anyone have info on what the sources of funding are for the ME/CFS of the type we'd want to see more of?

I know there are EU funding schemes, what I haven't looked into is the 'behind the scenes' where certain funding sources are going to be affected that don't have the bang-your-over-the-head-obvious label of being EU funding behind it. Do some of the ones like Nuffield, Wellcome, Wolfson etc have EU links that would also come undone or is this v defined pots that we can look at and calculate what will be in limbo?

I don't know how much of that EU pot is money UK puts in - ie whether in a 'closed system' if noone had to make decisions but you just got all your 'stakes'/own shares back what that would work out as. I'm not naive and can get a sense from what is put in newspapers and social media on what certain politicians might think on funding in general of research, so know that isn't to be assumed - on top of the different priorities that UK vs EU might have. So there are a lot of moving parts in estimating what the impact might be.

Has the EU link been something that is key in the past/present/future for ME/CFS research vs other countries? I'm trying to think where the culture-change for pushing for solutions is coming from and US is the one with the loudest voice, EU pic seems to be a mixed bag where I've heard of Euromene but don't know what's involved and don't know whether any countries in the EU have reached 'tipping point' where charities or national sentiment has finally said 'yeah let's start sorting ME/CFS/LC out with some real solutions'?

 

Is NIHR affected by this?

 

I have no idea.

 

I think the problem isn't necessarily that we'll lose direct EU funding to CFS/ME research, it's the knock-on effect. When there are fewer grants floating around the UK, the competition between them will get fiercer. There's about 143 labs with Horizon Europe funding. That's 143 labs who will have to start competing for UK-based grants, or jump ship to an EU country and take their expertise with them.

From what I understand, when it comes to the EU we got more for science and research funding than we put in.

 

I suspect the opposite. UK research funding agencies may well be incentivised to make the process of applying for grants more difficult to reduce the number of applications, as they will have less funding to distribute.

The pool of applicants will grow too, as British researchers who are stripped of their EU funding will now apply for UK grants — unless they decide to expatriate themselves.

A third problem is that funding agencies will not be able to recruit more staff to handle this extra workload, unless the government helps them, so the handling of grant applications will be delayed.

The combination of these issues does not bode well for the future of research in the UK.

 

I was assuming that in the short term at least one problem will be that larger multi national projects will become harder, especially those with a UK university as the lead organisation that previously would have relied on pan European funding. Also with it being harder for free movement of academics between British and EU universities a sense of being part of one pan European system will stand in the way psychologically for these larger multinational projects.

It is possible for big international multi centre research projects to take place independent of the EU, especially those funded by drug companies, for example a friend has worked for years on large trans Atlantic multi centre projects in MS research which theoretically are independent of EU membership. However much current multi centre or multi university research is European and I suspect that for most the short term easy option of confining such work to within the EU and EEA will result in a permanent shrinking of funding for UK research.

I see with friends who are professional dancers, that whilst EU citizens are still continuously moving between short term projects in various European cities, their British colleagues and British based projects are seeing far less international movement. It seems that the increased bureaucracy of moving in and out of the EU has seen a reduction in such free flow. It is not impossible, but no longer as easy and what in theory should be a temporary lull as people adjust to new systems I fear will become permanent as the UK government’s political need to seem tough on the EU leaves ongoing uncertainty and distrust. I suspect this is mirrored in the academic world.

[edited to expand the final paragraph]

 

The potential is for all of UK science to be impacted in the long term - however it has no effect on current funding, so DecodeME for example is not affected. The UK Government is not itself talking about reducing research funding, but as @cjlush points out above, the UK has been a net gainer on EU research fund distribution so unless UK spending goes up disproportionately then there will a reduction overall in research funding in the UK outside Horizon. We should note also the exceptionally high rates of UK inflation compared to the EU 27.

Beyond the £s and €s the larger issue is probably cross border and inter institution co-operation which potentially allows maximisation of effort - a lot of people working in one direction rather than isolated groups working at cross purposes, whether that is a good or bad thing depends on one's perspective.

FWIW my view is that not being part of Horizon will have a depleting effect on UK research across the board and though there's no evidence it would certainly be the case, I think that good work like DecodeME will have less chance of being extended outside the UK. Of course if your view of the world includes the idea of plucky Brits being the best scientists achieving enormous success by beavering away on their own, then ditching Horizon is what you would want, though I think that idea, although commonly held in the UK, is based on the false history of British (English ?) exceptionalism.

 

I seem to recall (correctly?) that Switzerland/EU were involved in a disagreement (think it related to "freedom of movement") and Swiss scientists were barred from Horizon 2020 (previous funding package). So this seems par for the course in terms of disagreements.

I don't know much but I gather some UK university research groups are heavily reliant on EU funding. Also, I've heard of UK academics exploring opportunities in the EU [EDIT - AKA looking for academic posts in the EU/being head hunted by EU based universities] i.e. due to loss of EU funding. There seems to be a market for UK researchers in the US too. All anecdotal of course.

 

I don't know whether the UK got more money out of European funding than it put in but I doubt much.

What I do know is that a large proportion of European grants involve artificial 'collaborations;' between groups in several countries that are in effect just fronts for the most politically powerful groups sidelining the cash. I wa p0art of the EUROMENE COST Action grant. It was useful for running a few meetings but it also spawned a lot of pseudo-collaborations that were quite embarrassing.

The political situation in the UK may now be as bad as anywhere. It used to be a bit less corrupt and hierarchical. The real problem is that the peer review system has been taken over by phoneys with no talent. Very little progress has been made in biomedical research in the last twenty years compared to the decades before.

Maybe the current financial disaster will bring some sort of silver lining in due course.

 

A neighbour, who is a professor, mentioned that the UK was a significant net beneficiary i.e. for every £1 it contributed to Horizon 2020 it received much more than £1 ---- can't remember the number but it was significant like £1 in = £2 out. Doesn't seem surprising to me since I consider UK is relatively strong in science (particularly considering the level of investment etc. in many EU countries).
Edit see @CRG post below -
"€42mn on a contribution of €6.7bn so yes only around 0.62% of the total UK Horizon spend over seven years".
So, based on these figures Jonathan's correct i.e. UK does not get much more out (0.62% more than contribution).
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03598-2

I couldn't agree more re how the EU science fund is "distributed". I've been on the periphery of a small group lobbying in the EU and responses from the EU Commission, re funding for ME/CFS research, have been embarrassing. A probiotic yogurt which may help --- if you're going to fund industry then why not just own up --- a commercial probiotic --- surely the multi million/billion euro [EDIT - dairy/probiotic] industry could fund that!

Lyme got about 5 million for a (failed - PCR based?) diagnostic test, but then Lyme was much more of a public concern (compared to ME/CFS).

 

€42mn on a contribution of €6.7bn so yes only around 0.62% of the total UK Horizon spend over seven years: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03598-2 That of course is across all sciences, not just Health.

An aspect of Horizon that's often understated is the involvement of 124 non EU countries as associate members - again though whether this is a benefit or a disbenefit is a matter of perspective.

 

Press release: EU supports research on poorly understood diseases

Thanks to the dedicated work of Belgian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Pascal Arimont and colleagues, Horizon Europe will provide new funding opportunities for research on high-burden, under-researched diseases.

Edit: new thread created re: Press release https://www.s4me.info/threads/europ...research-on-poorly-understood-diseases.30821/

 

Blow to UK science ambitions as BEIS "surrender" £1.6billion of R&D funding to Treasury

Today the Government has released its Central Government Supply Estimates 2022-23, in which it is detailed that the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has returned £1.6billion of funds to the Treasury, which had previously been allocated for Horizon Europe association or domestic alternatives.

Prof Sarah Main, Executive Director, Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) said:

“The Government has repeatedly stated that R&D budgets would be protected and that the money allocated for association to Horizon Europe would be spent on R&D. The Government's reversal of this position with today's withdrawal of £1.6bn for R&D undermines the Prime Minister's assertions about the importance of science and innovation to the UK's future and the creation, only this month, of a new department to pursue this agenda.

“The Government must follow through its ambition for science and innovation with coordinated action and investment across Government, not reversals and false starts. Can the Prime Minister now set out how he plans to mitigate this loss and put science and engineering at the heart of the UK's future?”

 

Ah, now the machinery-of-govt switcheroo with DSIT makes sense!