Written evidence submitted by the European Bioinformatics Institute (LEA0154)
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), situated on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge, is the UK site of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). EMBL-EBI is the premier European centre for services and research in bioinformatics, and is a world leader in managing biological big data. Its mission is:
Science is a collaborative, worldwide endeavour that is enhanced by the free movement of ideas and people. EMBL and other internationally supported scientific infrastructures undertake research and provide scientific services to the global community of scientists.
EMBL is an inter-governmental treaty organisation with 22 member states, including the United Kingdom, and two associate member states. As a treaty organisation EMBL’s legal personality is unrelated to the EU: indeed, many EU countries are not EMBL member states, and four member states are not within the EU (Israel, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland). We therefore do not anticipate any direct effects with regard to our operations following UK withdrawal from the EU. However, the science we do is global in scope and relies heavily on international collaboration and funding, as well as on a multinational staff: we are concerned that the UK’s disassociation from the EU, possible curtailment of the free movement of people, and the perceived international disengagement associated with that withdrawal will adversely affect our ability to attract staff and to fulfil our mission.
EMBL-EBI is primarily supported by EMBL member states, which include the UK. It also receives substantial funding via competitive grants from Research Councils UK (RCUK), the European Commission, the Wellcome Trust, industry partnerships and sources outside of Europe including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2015 EMBL-EBI received €5.5 million in grant funding from the EU and €5.6 million from RCUK.
At EMBL-EBI we will work to ensure that our services and data are affected as little as possible by the uncertainty and indirect adverse consequences that exit from the EU will bring. The UK Government should reduce these adverse affects by shortening the period of uncertainty, and should ensure the continued long-term success of UK science by retaining full access to European science funding and free movement of researchers and scientists.
EMBL-EBI’s research and service activities are highly collaborative. Many of our services are run jointly with scientists from other European countries, North America, and Asia; most of our grant-funded research and development activities are collaborations as well.
In 2015 we had 162 active grants, of which at least 47 involved European collaborators. Due to our legal status as an international organisation we are optimistic that we will be able to maintain EMBL-EBI’s collaborative involvement in international projects. However, there is a risk that a reduction in such collaborative activities by UK research entities will harm UK science, and will reduce the economic activity that results from development of new technologies.
EMBL-EBI’s activities are enhanced through recruitment of highly skilled staff from around the world: at the end of 2015, EMBL-EBI had 513 members of staff from 62 different nations. Of those, about 200 were British and about 200 were from other EU countries, with the rest coming from other parts of the world.
We employ large numbers of bioinformaticians, data experts, and software engineers. There is a worldwide shortage of experts in all of these sectors, and EMBL-EBI competes to attract staff from this pool. The ease of movement within EU countries has allowed us to attract, as noted above, hundreds of EU citizens to our staff. The uncertainty over the full consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU may affect our ability to recruit staff and we will closely monitor our recruitment figures for indications of a reduction in applicants from the EU.
Our experience is not unique: all research universities, research institutes, and technology firms in the UK rely on collaborations with partners, many of whom are in the EU, and on EU funding to do business. Our problems will be echoed throughout the UK and will have serious adverse effects on the advancement of UK research and technology sectors.
The UK is a world leader in scientific research because the scientific community welcomes people from all over the world who bring new ideas and contribute to a dynamic and innovative scientific and technology environment. Every university, research institute, and technology business in the UK is heavily reliant on attracting talented individuals from abroad in order to fulfil their missions.
We are deeply concerned that withdrawal from the EU will hinder freedom of movement and adversely affect science and technology research and industry in the UK.
We have not seen formal descriptions of possible models for a future scientific relationship with the EU, but assume they range from one with full access to funding and full freedom of movement to one whereby EU funding would no longer be available and movement of EU researchers would be severely restricted.
Although EMBL-EBI would in principle only be indirectly affected by restriction of researcher movement, and would retain access to EU funding, we are strongly in favour of an agreement with the EU that maintains free movement of highly skilled scientists throughout the EU and the UK, and which gives UK researchers access to competitive research funds from the EU. Of course that includes a contribution from the UK to those research funds. These funds are important not only for their direct support for research, but also, and crucially, as a catalyst for supporting and maintaining long-term collaborations among scientists throughout Europe.
Collaborative networks. EU science and research policy and funding have, over the past few decades, been effective in helping to create a unified scientific environment across Europe, with many rich and fruitful collaborations that are enhanced by the free and easy movement of researchers throughout Europe. Such movement has two benefits. First, it effectively expands the talent pool for researchers to include scientists in all EU countries, thus allowing better matches between skills and research projects. Second, many students and early-career scientists have worked in one or more countries outside of their own home country, and have developed cross-border links and collaborations. Over time, the sum of these many individual connections has grown into a large, interconnected network that enhances the effectiveness of European science.
The UK’s withdrawal from the EU risks these close ties: both UK and EU science will suffer if collaborative activities are reduced.
The UK government’s first priority should be to ensure that UK and EU scientists continue to have the same opportunities for collaboration and research funding that exist while the UK is a full EU member.
Research infrastructures. The UK has been a leading participant in efforts to build up European research infrastructures (ESFRI). EMBL-EBI, as part of EMBL, is or has been a partner in a number of European biomedical science (BMS) research infrastructures, including ESFRI projects such as ELIXIR, EATRIS, Infrafrontier, Euro-BioImaging and EMBRC. As a partner, EMBL-EBI has played a major role in shaping these European-wide infrastructures, and has successfully led and hosted the management core for ELIXIR. As an international organisation that is not a UK legal entity, EMBL-EBI can continue to participate in ESFRI projects, but the UK is a member of most of these BMS projects and the UK’s future status is not clear. One of these projects, INSTRUCT, is headquartered in Oxford.
The UK Government’s second priority should be to ensure continued access to, and participation in, the creation and running of European research infrastructure projects.
Risks from uncertainty. The current uncertainty of the UK’s status is already affecting collaborative research. EMBL-EBI’s eligibility for EU funding will not change after UK withdrawal from the EU, but we are nevertheless very concerned that our physical location in the UK means that our collaborators and potential collaborators will assume that our status has changed and will stop initiating collaborations with us. We of course are working hard to ensure that all of our collaborators understand that our status has not changed.
For universities and other institutions in the UK, though, this risk is real, not perceived. It is not clear whether UK institutions will be able to participate in EU funding in future, and until then scientists in the EU will be reluctant to undertake research projects with UK partners
The UK Government’s third priority should be to reduce uncertainty by clearly formulating and communicating science and research priorities that will become the basis of a research policy agreement with the EU as soon as the negotiation process is triggered.
Legal frameworks for infrastructures. Established infrastructures such as EMBL were formed using an international treaty. These infrastructures will not be directly affected by the UK withdrawal from the EU.
However, organisations formed under other legal models, such as the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), will be affected. Many of the biomedical science ESFRI infrastructure projects are organised using the ERIC model. Withdrawal from the EU will create confusion for infrastructures that include UK members, and in particular for those with headquarters in the UK.
Regulatory agencies. The EU leaves science policy to its Member States, which set their own priorities relating to science and technology and enact national legislation. However, there are a number of areas where harmonising regulations with the EU will be beneficial for both the EU and the UK. For example, UK researchers and clinicians are governed by the EU Data Protection Regulation and the EU Clinical Trials Directive, and the European Medicines Agency, currently in London, supervises drug safety throughout the EU. Researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies all benefit from these EU-wide regulatory regimes. UK withdrawal from the EU should not preclude continued participation in these regimes in order to promote patients’ safety and health, and efficiency for clinical research and drug development.
It is EMBL-EBI’s position is that it would be beneficial if EU students, scientists, and researchers who are currently in the UK were allowed to remain. The conditions that applied when they entered the UK should not change, and we would encourage such a decision as soon as possible.
If students and, particularly, working scientists who currently reside in the UK believe they may lose their right to residency, they may wish to reduce their risks by finding other employment outside the UK. This will be detrimental to currently funded and staffed research projects and would affect the outcomes of such projects.
EU membership has enhanced our collaborations with countries all over the world. Our collaborators assume, correctly, that EMBL-EBI has a good overview of the bioinformatics landscape in Europe and that we can, and will, involve collaborators from around Europe when appropriate.
For the scientific community, “market access” is not primarily for goods and services, but for labour. The key issue is free movement of people. For EMBL-EBI this means skilled biologists, bioinformaticians, data scientists, and software engineers to run our data services. Interdisciplinarity is an important component of excellent research, therefore we also benefit from collaborations with skilled scientists, technologists, and engineers in a wide variety of fields.
We are pleased that the UK welcomes skilled workers from outside the EU, but those workers still require visas, and applying for visas puts an administrative burden on UK universities, research institutes, and other technology employers. Withdrawal from the EU will deter EU citizens from applying for jobs in the UK and will add to the administrative burden for employers if additional resources are diverted to handle visa applications for EU citizens.
The UK scientific community benefits hugely from membership in the EU. Official EUROSTAT data and reports for 2013 (the latest available figures) show that while the UK is a net contributor to the EU budget, it is a net recipient of R&D funding: contributing €0.89bn to EU R&D funds but receiving €1.44bn in competitive awards.
The benefit for UK science is clear. In addition to financial advantages, the UK benefits tremendously from freedom of movement and collaborations across the EU, as discussed in the sections above.
The UK Government should undertake to preserve the current status quo as much as possible:
We have addressed what we believe are the three primary risks to UK science from withdrawal from membership in the EU. They are:
In addition, withdrawal from the EU may result in an increased administrative burden for universities and firms if they have to support visa applications for EU researchers who are currently able to move freely to the UK. For EMBL-EBI, with over 200 staff from EU countries, this would result in diversion of funds from our research and services to administration.
We cannot at present see any opportunities for UK science and technology in withdrawing from the EU.
The EU does not at present regulate science policy or agreements between its Member States’ scientific funding bodies and non-EU countries. Withdrawal from the EU will not affect this situation, so there are no additional opportunities to enhance non-EU scientific collaborations.
In order to measure the impact of potential or actual withdrawal from the EU, we advocate developing metrics to assess scientific interactions with the EU. These metrics could include:
August 2016