Science in the UK − whereto now?

Humour in Britain is appreciated for its quirkiness and ironic elf-deprecation and can sometimes seem baffling to the outside orld. The outcome of the recent United Kingdom referendum here a narrow-ish majority voted to leave the European Union s certainly perplexing to most onlookers and, if its consequences ere not so far-reaching, might be laughed off as an illustration of uch absurd humour. One of the most farcical aspects of the vote s that no one has any idea what “Brexit” actually means no matter ow often the ignorant slogan “Brexit means Brexit” is repeated. owever, an immediate consequence is that the uncertainties creted by the vote, and its potential impact on science, continues o be the subject of widespread, anxious and incredulous debate mongst scientists in the UK and between their many friends and ollaborators in the world-wide scientific community. Objectively, t is difficult to discern a single coherent argument that can be made or Brexit, and there can be little doubt that the human, societal and nancial implications of this needless debacle could be both wide eaching and damaging. UK science is highly competitive and EU and UK researchers ave become linked in an extensive collaborative network that has een of immense benefit to UK (and EU) science, with levels of nter-country collaborations within the EU (13%) similar to those f inter-state collaborations within the USA (16%) [1]. Together ith scientists from other EU countries, British scientists comrise around 22% of researchers worldwide, way ahead of the USA 17%) [2]. European researchers are also productive as measured y publications and author around 34% of the world’s research oututs, with the USA trailing at 23% [1]. Between 2005 and 2014, K researcher output rose from 70,201 to 87,948, second only to ermany (73,573–91,631) and way ahead of next-placed France 52,476–65,086). Indeed, for publications in biological and medial sciences, British authors are the most prolific by far (Fig. 1). UK nstitutions have been awarded by far the most research grants y the European Research Council [3], which funds individual rojects solely on the basis of their scientific excellence and so elps researchers bypass what is sometimes perceived as a less bjective distribution of monies from national research councils. etween 2007 and 2015, the UK accounted for 639/3056 grants, ith next-placed Germany obtaining 440. The UK has been simiarly successful with the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, with nearly 2% of the applications received under the first 100 calls accounting or 15% of the available funding [4]. The Royal Society reckons from ata released by the UK Office of National Statistics that between 007 and 2013 the UK received a net amount of D 2.9 billion in direct