Universities UK response to UK government position on Brexit and EU research and innovation collaboration

Universities UK responded today to the UK government’s position on continued collaboration in research and innovation with the EU as part of the Brexit process.

The UK government has indicated that it would like to see continued collaboration in research and innovation with our European partners after the UK exists the EU.

Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said: “We welcome the Government's commitment to maintaining collaboration on research with our European partners after we exit, and to continuing to attract the brightest minds to the UK’s universities. The best way to achieve this is for the UK government to negotiate access to, and influence over, the next EU research and innovation programme.

“The UK is one of the main players in the EU's research and innovation programme and benefits enormously from the collaboration and access to networks this provides. This allows researchers to collaborate with world-leading experts on life-changing research, with knock-on benefits for the economy, society and individuals in the UK.”

ENDS

Notes

1. The UK government's position on future collaboration in research and collaboration is set out in a position paper published today.

1. Universities UK (UUK) has set out a number of policy priorities to support universities to thrive post-exit, to ensure that British universities can maximise their contribution to a globally successful UK. Universities UK will publish later this week a paper focusing on the stability measures that we believe the government needs to implement now to provide such certainty.  

1. Statistics published today by the European Research Council show that, this year, the UK ranks first for hosting successful Starting Grant applicants among early career researchers.