How Brexit Is Transforming the UK’s STEM Community

Scientists face the ramifications of the country’s departure from the European Union, from delays in laboratory supplies to difficulties hiring international students and faculty.

Katarina Zimmer

| 8 min read

Hand drawing a red line between the UK and the rest of the European Union. Concept of Brexit.

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In the months leading up to 2021, Annela Seddon was anxious. In mid-August 2020, the University of Bristol physicist had just hired an Italian postdoc to join a collaboration between UK and Kenyan researchers to develop a rapid diagnostic tool for tuberculosis. Initially, it looked like the postdoc would be able to come to Seddon’s lab immediately to start on the lab project, for which funding was time-limited. But as COVID-19 cases surged and sent the UK into a national lockdown in November, it became increasingly clear that the postdoc wouldn’t be able to come before the end of the year. In waiting until 2021, he would become one of the first EU scientists to travel to a post-Brexit Britain.

As of this year, EU citizens planning to work in the UK have been subject to the same entry requirements as those from many other countries ...

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Meet the Author

Katarina Zimmer
After a year teaching an algorithm to differentiate between the echolocation calls of different bat species, Katarina decided she was simply too greedy to focus on one field. Following an internship with The Scientist in 2017, she has been happily freelancing for a number of publications, covering everything from climate change to oncology.
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