Prior to the EU Referendum, it was almost impossible to find unbiased information about the consequences of staying or leaving. And today, it is still difficult to sort fact from fiction, reality from hyperbole. Positive and negative stories are leapt on by either side to bolster their “I told you so” claims.
However, one person I am prepared to believe is Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. He is the President of the Royal Society, the oldest national scientific body in the world.
Ramakrishnan has been raising an important issue, one barely touched on during pre-referendum debates, and that is a possible shortfall in science funding. EU grants worth hundreds of millions of pounds could be lost as a result of Brexit. Already, Jo Johnson (the reappointed science minister and brother of Boris) has indicated that it won’t be easy to compensate for any lost funds.
The situation is far from clear at this stage, but not to make up any deficit would be a grave error.
There are so many good reasons why continued high investment in science is important for the country. Among them are improvements to life and longevity, the creation of jobs and other factors that contribute to a growing economy and the avoidance of a brain drain to other countries.
We are a world leader in scientific research. Let’s hope we don’t lose our global standing for the want of a few shekels.
