Brexit and Innovation: Focus on Research and Development in the UK

Abstract

The UK has a strong science base and the country’s innovation performance, as measured by the European Union’s Summary Innovation Index, has improved by 11.7% since 2010. The British innovation system is highly internationalised compared with its counterparts in other EU member states. The involvement of UK researchers in European research projects financed through EU framework programmes has increased in recent years, and the country receives more from the EU’s R&D budget than it contributes. The main objective of this chapter is to identify how the UK’s position will change after Brexit in terms of participation in EU-funded research and innovation programmes. The chapter shows that the impact of Brexit on research and innovation in the UK depends on the model of the country’s future relationship with the EU. The most probable scenario for UK–EU research collaboration post-Brexit is that the UK will become a partially associated country. Such a status will mean that the UK will contribute to EU framework programmes based on GDP and population, but will have no role in developing EU research and innovation policy and no influence on funding topics.