London would lose hundreds of millions of pounds of “crucial” science funding if Britain votes to quit the EU, campaigners said today.
Former Science Minister Lord Willetts said the capital would risk losing its status as one of the world’s leading cities for scientific research and business R&D if European funding was withdrawn.
London is due to get a 51 per cent increase in science funding from the biggest yet EU programme, Horizon2020. It will pump £2.1 billion into projects in the capital up to 2020, up from £1.4 billion under a previous funding round, according to the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign.
“Turning our back on Europe would mean that the quality of London’s science and research base would suffer,” claimed Lord Willetts.
“No wonder so many of our universities have got ‘departure from the EU’ as one of the biggest prospective threats to their institutions. Taking a leap into the dark is a risk we cannot afford to take.”
He branded “false” the idea that Britain would continue to receive the same support if it adopted an associate form of EU identity.
The UK takes £8.5 billion from the EU programme, making Britain the single largest beneficiary, ahead of Germany, Spain, Italy and France.
Scientists say Britain would face an exodus of top brains in the event of a Brexit, downgrading universities and research institutions.
In evidence to a Lords committee, Prof Steve Cowley, who runs the UK’s national laboratory for fusion research, said such long-term projects would not be possible outside the EU.
“At this point, we have the greatest capability for fusion in the world,” he said. “That capability is supported largely by European money.”
Professor Dame Janet Thornton, of the European Bioinformatics Institute, which analyses genes to seek cures for cancer, said: “We cannot do it on our own, because it needs data for millions of people.”
