Boris Johnson¡¯s apparent desire for a ¡°clean break¡± Brexit and wish to align with the US rather than the European Union have sparked fears that the UK may opt against joining the bloc¡¯s next research programme.

The resignation as universities minister of Jo Johnson, who campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, has added to fears about the government¡¯s position on negotiating access to Horizon Europe, which starts in January 2021.

Joining the programme is likely to require the UK to pay the EU?more than?€7 billion?(?6.2 billion) over the course of the seven-year programme, and could be jeopardised by a no-deal Brexit that poisons UK-EU relations.

Sir Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, suggested?a?broader shift under the Boris Johnson government towards looser alignment with the EU on issues such as defence could mean a ¡°massive pivot away from a common regulatory framework, a common research base¡±.

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Jo Johnson ¡°may have started to realise that the chances of holding the sector in the European research space?after a Boris Johnson Brexit were?looking pretty slim¡±, he said. ¡°And I think that¡¯s a massive, massive challenge for us.¡±

Assurances that the UK government will seek association to the EU¡¯s research programme date back to Theresa May¡¯s government, and have ¡°not come in the last six weeks from central government¡±, Sir Chris said. ¡°The increasing sense is that what government wants to look for is a clean break.¡±

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Gordon Marsden, Labour¡¯s shadow universities minister, criticised the government¡¯s failure to ¡°produce anything...that would keep the sector feeling less apprehensive about a no-deal Brexit¡±.

¡°If no deal means our relationships with the EU end in discord and ugliness and we¡¯re obliged to put more, or all, our eggs in the US basket, we become much less attractive as a global link mechanism¡± in research, Mr Marsden added.

But Lord Willetts, a former Conservative universities minister who backs a second EU referendum, said that there was ¡°still a strand of pragmatism in the Conservative government¡± and there were ¡°Brexiteers who can still see the value of research links to Europe and attracting students from around the world¡±.

¡°The paradox is that although a lot of us in the university and research community are worried about a hard Brexit, when it comes to universities and science the Boris Johnson government is actually quite pro; in many ways more pro than Theresa [May],¡± Lord Willetts said.

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Jo Johnson announced that he would also stand down as an MP at the next election following a purge of moderate Tory MPs who opposed a no-deal Brexit. He said that serving in his brother¡¯s government created an ¡°unresolvable tension¡± between ¡°family loyalty and the national interest¡±.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com