Abstract
Following the Brexit referendum the prospects of EU academics have changed significantly. As a result, I have left UK academia. In this blog entry, I try to answer some of the questions I am being asked occasionally, such as: how does Brexit affect you, at a personal and professional level?
Reduced funding
A lot of the research funding coming to the UK (and my field of research) is originating from the European Union. The UK is actually much better than most other countries at attracting these research contracts, and attracts much more money than is paid in (proportionally) [https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-research-funding-uk/]. So the prospect of this not being available is rather important: the modern academic is a manager of their own brand, who needs to attract funding (=contracts), which which they can hire staff (postdoctoral researchers and PhD students) to do the actual research work. The academic themselves need to spend lots of their time teaching and doing administration, that in affect they can manager research projects and staff, but don't have the time to do this research themselves.
Reduced access to staff
Reduced availability of staff
Reduced EU collaboration
Uncertainty for academic staff and their families
Reduced living and research standards
Context
Following our undergraduate studies in Germany, my wive and I have been in the UK since 1998, starting as a PhD students. becoming a young lecturer in 2002 and a full Professor at the University of Southampton in 2010.
See [1]