R&D policy sidelined by Brexit

Potentially game-changing government reports detailing the future of UK research and higher education are in the wind as Brexit consumes vast amounts of civil service time.

Delays to reports outlining how government plans to massively increase R&D spending and strengthen international collaborations are adding to uncertainty in a sector already fretting over unknowns such as future tuition fee policy—also tied to a yet-to-be released report.

Brexit “is knocking everything else out of the way”, says Nick Hillman, director of the think tank the Higher Education Policy Institute. “There is an appetite at the very heart of government to return to the domestic agenda the minute Brexit is out of the way,” he told Research Fortnight. “But the problem with that is that it is going to be a long time until Brexit is completely out of the way.”