The principal of Dundee University has said continued membership of the European Union is “a must” for Scottish universities whatever the outcome of the independence referendum.
Professor Pete Downes recently took part in a Universities UK delegation to Brussels to meet senior officials, including the new director of the European Research Council, which funds world-class research projects.
His own institution received more than £20 million in European funding in 2012-13, accounting for a sixth of its total research budget. That sum supported the jobs of hundreds of staff.
Professor Downes said: “European funding for research, especially now the European Research Council has fully established itself, is immensely valuable to the UK and Scotland.
“Whatever the outcome of September’s referendum, continuing membership of the EU is a must for Scotland’s universities.”
He noted that being part of Europe was not without its problems.
“A couple of innocent sounding amendments to European laws on data protection, the intentions of which are entirely laudable, have the potential to make illegal the UK’s and especially Scotland’s approach to e-health, using anonymised patient records to greatly improve health outcomes and tailor treatment, and research which makes use of such information.
“This would be a disaster for Dundee which has pioneered these approaches.
“Thankfully, the problem has been spotted in time and plans are afoot to correct it before the amendments reach the statute books.”
However, Professor Downes said he welcomed a new EU research programme, Horizon 2020, which was one of the topics of discussion during his Brussels trip in his capacity as convener of Universities Scotland.
“Horizon 2020 is going to be less bureaucratic than its predecessor and is one of the very few sources of research funding open to us whose budget is increasing perhaps not as much as had originally been hoped, but an increase nevertheless.
“There is going to be an even greater emphasis on engaging with industry, especially working with small and medium-sized enterprises who will be integral members of research consortia.
“Other European countries have tended to do much better than the UK, and especially Scotland, in getting their own small companies involved, so we will have to work hard on this aspect to ensure the benefits of collaboration are felt in Scotland as much as elsewhere in Europe.”