Research would suffer from Scottish independence, BIS claims

Scottish independence would disrupt the flow of research funding, researchers and scientific knowledge around the UK, according to a report by the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The report, Scotland Analysis: Science and research, argues that "together, Scotland and the rest of the UK have a large, heavily integrated, and thriving research base which is highly respected across the world."

The document, published on 11 November, discusses how Scotland is integrated with and benefits from the UK research system and suggests that collaborations between the UK and researchers in an independent Scotland would face a higher level of risk, and that the research programme in an independent Scotland would be likely to diverge from the UK.