Wellcome Trust Report Recommends UK-EU Agreement On Research & Innovation

The Wellcome Trust, the London-based biomedical research charity, has issued recommendations for improved scientific collaboration after Brexit, including to establish a formal agreement on research and innovation. This includes continued leadership by the UK on open research, and might include expanding the UK patent box scheme, it says.

The Future Partnership Project report, Building a Strong Future for European Science: Brexit and Beyond [PDF 641KB], based on consultations with more than 200 United Kingdom and European scientists and policymakers, makes recommendations about “how greater scientific collaboration could be achieved after Brexit,” according to a release from Wellcome Trust, which undertook the project with the Royal Society over the last three months.

“There was a strong view that cooperation through the EU Framework Programmes is the best way to maintain this partnership. However, cooperation on funding is not sufficient; cooperation is also needed on regulation and research policy and on the movement of people,” the report states. “Some of the solutions we propose will need to be included in a formal agreement, which could be a chapter within an EU – UK trade deal or a stand-alone research and innovation agreement.”

According to the release, the report recommends a Brexit deal that:

• enables the UK to influence, pay into and access European research funding as an associated country, like Norway, Switzerland and Israel
• aligns scientific research regulation between the UK and EU
• supports full researcher mobility between the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) through a mutual, simple and quick approach that enables the scientific workforce and their families to move easily between countries.

“The UK should continue to engage as a full, constructive and reliable partner in European research funding, research policy and science advice,” the report states. It adds:

“After Brexit, the EU and UK should continue to cooperate on pre-competitive research regulation because of their shared values and regulatory leadership. In particular:
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The EU and UK should agree on how to maintain the free flow of personal data for research. This would ideally be achieved through a comprehensive ‘adequacy’ agreement (where it is agreed that there are adequate levels of data protection to allow personal data to be transferred without more safeguards). A practical alternative is agreeing sector-specific safeguards to allow the free flow of personal data for research as part of a research and innovation agreement.
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A research and innovation agreement should enable the UK to participate in the EU’s harmonised clinical trials system on a similar basis to Member States.
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A research and innovation agreement should cover continued cooperation on the implementation of rules to protect animals used for scientific purposes.”Finally, it says, “A research and innovation agreement should promote dialogue on areas of research policy where the EU and UK can provide global leadership, for example on open research.”

The report also highlights the importance of the European Research Area (ERA) and says Europe’s leadership position cannot be taken for granted and lists several actions needed. These include: better communicating the social, cultural and economic benefits of European research; investing in the next generation of European researchers while also attracting skilled people from around the world; increasing Europe’s investment in research, noting that China’s investment is growing over three times as fast as the EU’s; and ensuring that research leads to improvements in the quality of life of citizens.

On this last point, the report includes a reference to exploring incentives for industry and venture capital such as: “the use of tax credits and the Patent Box scheme pioneered in the UK and public-private partnerships like the Innovative Medicines Initiative.”