Opinion: What Brexit means for UK science: a view from the coalface

Simon Redfern (Department of Earth Sciences) discusses how Brexit may impact EU research opportunities and funding in the UK. Science, and geoscience in particular, is an international activity that benefits from cooperation and collaboration. The Brexit vote is a wake up call, not just for the UK but more widely, and it underlines how so many people feel isolated from the traditional political institutions and elites and feel threatened by globalisation. Aside from that, however, it sadly sends an unfortunate signal that the UK is unwelcoming, despite the fact that almost half the voters took the opposite view. In areas with high numbers of graduates, like London, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU. This reflects the reality that UK geoscience labs remain welcoming international workplaces. But Brexit introduces all sorts of uncertainties - will employees' families and friends be able to visit and travel as freely as they have in the past? Will the UK continue to attract the best minds into its universities from across the EU and elsewhere? Personally, although initially shocked and still heartbroken at the result, I remain optimistic that UK universities and geoscience employers will continue to offer a great environment in which to pursue science, to work, and to live.