Sep 14, 2017 - Molecular Biology Laboratory. The policy paper mentions precision medicines and genomics as emerging area
Brexit Law – your business, the EU and the way ahead
UK sets clear objectives for continued science success 14September 2017
Collaboration on science and innovation UK future partnership paper published The United Kingdom Government’s Brexit future partnership paper on collaboration in science and innovation was published by the Department for Exiting the European Union on Wednesday 6 September. As expected, the UK seeks a far-reaching science and innovation agreement with the EU that could “be even more ambitious than any yet agreed between the EU and a non-EU entity”. This position is in line with the UK government’s industrial strategy which promises additional funding worth £2 million a year by 2020-2021 to invest in research and innovation. Although the terms of UK participation, most importantly the size of any financial contribution, would need to be negotiated, it seems clear that the UK will be prepared to underwrite generous funding to enable UK institutions to continue to participate in Horizon 2020, including the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public private partnership which brings together the pharmaceutical industry with academia, SMEs and other stakeholders to accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines. At present, over 90% of IMI projects have involved at least one UK institution. Whilst providing no detail yet of the relationship the UK seeks with the European Medicines Agency, the paper looks to examples of EMA cooperation with regulatory
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bodies around the world and seeks to build on the precedent of agreements the EU already has in place with the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. Perhaps it is here that the UK’s hope of “a more ambitious agreement than any yet agreed” may find a substantial form. The UK also welcomes discussions on how it might continue to facilitate an open market for researchers through the European Research Area (ERA), seeking to agree, for example, a continued system for the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and investing £100 million in the Rutherford Fund to provide fellowships for early career and senior researchers. The UK will continue to collaborate in European projects not confined to the EU such as the European Bioinformatics Institute, an institute of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. The policy paper mentions precision medicines and genomics as emerging areas of research where there are near term opportunities for increased bilateral cooperation between the UK and the EU, perhaps through a Scientific and Technological Partnership (STP) agreement. This policy paper praises the mutual benefits flowing from continued close cooperation between the EU and the UK in the fields of science and innovation and signposts for the EU negotiators that the UK is certainly willing to pay for this. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads /attachment_data/file/642542/Science_and_innovation_p aper.pdf
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Brexit Law | Collaboration on science and innovation | September 2017
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