Brexit: 35 leading scientists warn about risks for research

World

Thirty-five winners of a Nobel Prize or Fields Medal on Monday alerted British and European authorities of Brexit's risk of scientific research, calling for an agreement to maintain "the closest possible cooperation" .

"The challenges we face need to be tackled in a way that is beneficial to all, and they will be better confronted together," say the signatories of this open letter to European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and the President of the European Commission. British Minister Theresa May.

"Only an agreement allowing the closest possible cooperation between the United Kingdom and the EU, today and in the future, will allow it," says the scientists, including the French Albert Fert or Claude Cohen -Tannoudji, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007 and 1997 respectively, or the German mathematician Peter Scholze, winner of the Fields Medal in 2018.

Scientific progress "requires the exchange of people and ideas across borders, to enable the rapid exchange of expertise and technology," they stress. "Creating new barriers to collaboration will hinder progress, to the detriment of all of us."

This letter is published at the same time as a survey of researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London, which reveals their concerns about Brexit.

At the institute, which presents itself as "the largest biomedical research laboratory under one roof in Europe", 97% of the 1,053 scientists who responded to the survey believe that the UK's exit from the EU will have negative consequences on scientific research in the country.

And nearly 82% of them believe that the consequences will be "negative" or "very negative" on research in the EU.

Several researchers have also reported difficulties in recruiting, as well as "stress" or "anxiety" caused by Brexit.

"We need an agreement that replaces the funding lost because of Brexit, which preserves the freedom of movement of talented scientists, and makes them feel welcome" in the UK, said Britain's Paul Nurse, the director of the institute, Nobel Prize of Medicine in 2001, also signatory of the open letter.

In 2016, he told AFP that the European Union funds allocated to his establishment amounted to about 5 million pounds a year (6 million euros), or 5% of his budget.