BUSINESS NEWS
Brexit must take a back
seat to EU UK scientific
collaboration
Despite Brexit, the coronavirus crisis should make us
even more determined to ensure the UK remains at
the heart of European science collaborations
41 June 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
Covid-19 has knocked Brexit
off the front pages. But the
UKs decision to leave the
EU is perhaps more relevant
than ever.
Firstly, it means the UK
will probably be towards the back
of the queue when a vaccine is
eventuall rolled out, while secondly
– and more crucially for broader
collaboration in science – it’s
highlighting the impact of UK
expertise being excluded from
international research
programmes.
Current best estimates put a
delivery date for a vaccine 12-18
months away – beyond the Brexit
transition period – meaning that
the UK is likely to be outside the
authority of the EU’s medicines
regulator, the European Medicines
Agency (EMA). The frantic rush to
be first in line to secure the vaccine
has already prompted President
Trump to try to secure exclusive
supplies for the US, while the EU
also wants to ensure its member
states are at the front of the queue.
Both will offer more lucrative
markets to a drug company or
vaccine maker, with populations of
330 million in the US and 440
million in the EU, compared to just
66 million in the UK. The pandemic
has already delayed the ongoing
Brexit negotiations – if they are
further delayed and there is no
alignment of some form with the
EMA approval process, drugmakers
will likely be minded to prioritise
the EU market and seek EMA
ratification first, rather than
submitting a vaccine to the UK’s
Medicines and Healthcare
Regulatory Agency for approval.
So will this conundrum make
the UK government think twice
about cutting further ties with EU
science?
The UK has a proud record of
cutting-edge research and
discovery in science and medicine.
Scientists in Europe, like myself,
have long valued collaborations
with our UK counterparts because
of such expertise. But last month,
Christian Ehler, a leading German
MEP, expressed the fears that many
scientists across Europe share: that
the disruption from the pandemic
will lead to a failure to see out a
Brexit deal by the end of the year,
thereby isolating UK experts from
future research programmes.
As Ehler said: “Current events
only underline how important it is
to have UK in the EU research
programme. We should do all we
can do to get an agreement this
year. UK researchers are already in
a limbo state and are being
excluded from consortia. This
would get worse if there’s no deal.”
Disease respects no borders, so
collaboration across country and
political lines is essential for
tackling issues like Covid-19. Many
successful clinical breakthroughs
in the past have been because of
international partnerships and
providing open access to fresh
research data. Fleming may have
made the initial discovery of
penicillin, but teams from the
United States got involved later,
making it an international effort.
After the Ebola outbreak,
collaboration between scientists
across three continents resulted in
a vaccine being developed. UK
scientific expertise runs the risk of
being sidelined at a critical point.
The state of limbo, borne from
the Brexit talks, means that UK
scientists have already missed out
on European funding – such as the
€164 million the Commission
announced earlier this month for
companies with technologies and
that could help in treating, testing,
monitoring or other aspects of the
COVID-19 outbreak.
The experience of Switzerland
may provide a salutary tale for the
UK. A country with associated
membership of many EU
programmes, including science,
Switzerland voted to curb
immigration in 2014 and soon
found itself locked out of Horizon,
the EU’s research and innovation
funding stream. In the two years it
took for the dispute to be resolved,
the Swiss government stepped in to
fill the funding gaps – just as the
British government has pledged to
do – but the impact on the Swiss
DISEASE RESPECTS NO BORDERS, SO
COLLABORATION ACROSS COUNTRY AND POLITICAL
LINES IS ESSENTIAL FOR TACKLING ISSUES
LIKE COVID-19
research was significant, with a net
loss in funding estimated by the
Swiss government at €686 million.
Topping up lost funding,
however, cannot compensate for
the loss of crucial collaborative
networks. After 2014, Swiss
researchers were frozen out of
European research consortia, and
the stream of scientists moving to
Switzerland stopped. Levels of
collaboration with the EU dropped
ten-fold, according to EPFL, the
research institute. Switzerland had
ranked seventh in terms of EU
collaborations, but it fell to 24th
place after 2014.
The UK government has said
that it wants to retain access to
major pan-European research
programmes at associate level,
while, at the same time, restricting
freedom of movement that is a
fundamental value of the European
Union. That might be difficult to
attain, given that the EU has made
it clear that the UK can’t cherry
pick what it wants to be a part of.
The hope among European
scientists, however, is that Covid-19
may just focus minds that there are
bigger things afoot here. An old
rule of thumb was that pandemics
like this happen about three times
every century. But, since the turn
of the millennium, the world has
already confronted a raft of viral
shocks, including SARS in 2002 and
2003, H1N1 in 2009, MERS in 2012,
Ebola in 2014 to 2016, Zika in 2015
and Dengue fever in 2016. So, even
when we turn the tide on Covid-19,
the likelihood of another emerging
infectious disease impacting us is
high. The world will be infinitely
better placed for tackling such
diseases if the UK and EU are able
to continue to collaborate
effectively.
Professor Marja Makarow is
Member of the Strategic Board of
the University of Geneva and Chair
of Technology Academy Finland
awarding the Millennium
Technology Prize for
groundbreaking innovations
Comment
Professor Marja Makarow
/www.theengineer.co.uk