In March, I was given a great scientific opportunity: a €2.5m grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study how disease-causing bacteria swap genes with each other to become more infective, or evade treatments such as antibiotics. The ERC advanced grant is a very prestigious award, and it meant that I and the scientists at my lab at Imperial College London could finally get to work on questions and experiments we had been planning for the past few years.
But just a few weeks later I was informed that the funding was in jeopardy. Because the UK failed to negotiate an agreement to remain in the EU’s Horizon Europe funding programme – which it had previously committed to doing – my grant, along with those of 142 other UK-based scientists, couldn’t be taken up in this country.
This posed an enormous problem. I began speaking with EU-based universities about moving the research programme, but there are eight to 10 other scientists working under me in my own lab, and I am the current director of the UK’s MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection. Scientists work in deeply connected networks of collaborators and institutions, and moving to France or Spain, even part-time, would disrupt much more than just this one research project.
Ultimately I did not move, and so I lost the money. This was very painful. It still hurts. The UK government has indicated it will provide replacement funding through its own research and innovation scheme, but it is not yet fully clear if it will match all the terms of the ERC programmes – the prestige, the flexibility, the connections. As it stands, this part of our research is stalled until we are sure we have the kind of stability one needs to do science. I know some others made the difficult decision to leave the country and take up their work in Europe.
But this issue is far bigger than just our work, or that of the other researchers affected. Scientists can do incredible and innovative work that benefits wider society, but they need stability and support. This recent debacle contributes to science in the UK seeming more uncertain and uninviting. The UK was previously very good at attracting young and talented students and fellows, as well as older researchers and professors. This was good for the economy, and for the social and intellectual life of the country.
But I sense this is changing. The UK is now not an attractive place. I know far fewer EU-based researchers have chosen to move their work and funding here in recent years. If the politics don’t change, I expect this will continue. I know many people here have taken up a very British attitude, thinking they will simply manage. Some have told me things will be fine because I will have my grant money replaced, or as an established researcher I can get another grant. But that isn’t the point. I worry about the position of UK science in the world, and what will happen in the future for younger scientists.
I do love this country. I came here from Europe in 2013 and I have stayed. I am grateful to do my work here, and I have always felt welcome. In fact, I’ve never really felt like an immigrant. But I worry about someone making the same decision today. Things are far less certain.
José R Penadés is professor of microbiology at Imperial College London and the director of the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection
