Brexit and research: goodbye EU money and colleagues?

Abstract

Frankly, I am not surprised by the British voters' decision to leave the EU. If you ask a nation or community “Do you want to control your own destiny or let pesky outsiders decide things for you?”, there can be only one answer to this simplistic question. To understand the details of leaving and to consider the alternatives would require a thorough debate and not just sound bites. But many years of anti‐EU propaganda and jingoism fused into a simple choice to the person on the street. In addition, Brussels is an easy target and it is political expediency to imply that this “foreign body” imposes its rules. Just as it is easy to “blame the committee” when some necessary but unpopular decisions are announced, “Europe” was the shield for introducing many decisions that help consumers, ensure better fiscal discipline or for collective approaches to climate change. Being Irish, I also saw many positive societal changes not just in my country, but all across the continent, thanks to the “outside body” in Brussels. And yet, the trend for the past few years has been to vote against the status quo. The Brexit vote, the Austrian presidential election, the rise of new right‐ and left‐wing parties in Holland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and the success of Donald Trump in the USA: the voters will no longer buy the same‐old, same‐old. Now that the people have decided, and unless in the cold light of reality the new leaders of the UK choose to go back on that decision or acquiesce to a “light” version of Brexit, there will be severe consequences no matter how much British politicians try to convince their voters otherwise. The supporters of the Leave campaign believe that Britain does not need to be part of a club the …