More joint appointments and funding programmes will benefit both nations whether the UK stays in EU research programmes or not, says Ireland’s chief scientific adviser.
Shortly after the UK voted to leave the EU, Ireland established Brexit preparedness initiatives across all government departments and agencies. This included worst-case analyses of the impact of losing the UK as a potential collaborator in EU programmes.
The European Commission’s database of funded research projects showed that 11.5 per cent of Horizon 2020 projects involving an Irish partner also included the UK as a collaborator. These are spread fairly evenly across scientific disciplines. Looking at larger projects, the UK leads fewer than 10 per cent of those in which Ireland is a collaborator.