Scotland’s leading agricultural research institutes are at risk from EU funding and staff losses MSPs were told ahead of this week’s Scottish Government budget. Professor Julie Fitzpatrick of the Moredun Institute told members of the Scottish Parliament’s environment, climate change and land reform committee that EU grants account for one fifth of the institute’s income, totalling £13.6m over the past eight years.

This has highlighted the vulnerability to the research sector of the impact of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, Fitzpatrick stressed: “The UK and Scottish Government [must] do all that is possible to retain access to EU research.”

Reducing staff numbers

Professor Colin Campbell of the James Hutton Institute (JHI) said that EU funding had become more important as Scottish Government funding declined. Moreover, the drop in core Scottish funding actually made it more difficult to secure funding from other sources.

“We have also had to cut costs and reduce staff numbers,” Professor Campbell told the committee, adding that two staff have already left JHI because of Brexit.

The Moredun Institute’s commercial enterprises contributed a further £1.3m last year. Despite this, Fitzpatrick expressed her frustration that the institute has not been replacing staff who are leaving, making it harder to employ new and young scientists able, for example, to tackle important areas like anti-microbial resistance.

EU workers currently make up 14% of the JHI’s staff and around 12% of the Moredun’s.

International cooperation

The potential loss of EU funding is one of several effects of Brexit on Scotland’s research institutes. “It’s not just about the money,” Professor Campbell explained. “It’s about the scientific cooperation. Being able to compare a scientific experiment in Scotland with one in Spain, you learn a great deal more from that than if you were on your own. It is really important we keep the international cooperating going.”

Campbell explained how JHI’s research is international and exposed: “A single project like our work on the barley genome has between 50 and 60 authors on a single paper,” he said.