World view

Global collaboration is not a riposte to the EU, says Sarah Richardson in this week’s Research Fortnight leader.

With little over a month until Brexit day, the country’s future involvement in European research programmes is still depressingly unclear. So it’s little surprise that the government is paying increasing attention to those international research partnerships that it has some direct control over.

The concept of a global Britain, with fresh international connections, is one of the cherished selling points of Brexit both for those who backed it and those who didn’t, but find themselves leading its delivery. In the research world, this has manifested at a policy level in increased overtures to countries including the United States, China and India. It is also, surely, a contributing factor in the government’s growing infatuation with the Global Challenges Research Fund.