Leaving the EU could damage UK science

Pulling out of the European Union would make the “already quite difficult” process of recruiting overseas scientists to work in the UK even worse, according to Ed Hinds, director of the Centre for Cold Matter at Imperial College London.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Material World programme on 9 May, Hinds said that the free movement of scientists was “really important” and that new policies had already made it harder to employ researchers from outside the Commonwealth or the EU.

However, UKIP MEP for the East Midlands, Roger Helmer, said that leaving the EU would provide the UK with more money and “more democratic control” over where it was spent.