Brexit on the front foot

The University of Leeds has dealt with Brexit by redoubling its efforts to secure European Union funding. It was hard work but it has produced results, Ben Williams, the university’s head of EU funding, tells Ben Upton.

Since the outcome of the 2016 referendum on the UK’s EU membership, the University of Leeds has risen from 12th to 7th place among UK institutions in the category of number of Horizon 2020 grants won and from 15th to 9th place for total funding.

There are several reasons for the climb, says Williams. The strategy adopted by the research office at Leeds, based around listening to its researchers’ concerns, reassuring them where possible and actively encouraging them to carry on putting in bids to the EU’s R&D funding programme Horizon 2020, is one of the main ones.