European universities may soon be able to scoop up UK researchers and their research council funding following a partnership agreement between funding agencies.
Graham Richards, chairman of chemistry and one of the most famous entrepreneurs at Oxford University, this week criticised an agreement that has allowed a German university to poach one of his key researchers and more than half a million pounds of cash from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He told The Times Higher : "European budget arrangements are a mess. We are very miffed that this excellent researcher, who has only been with us for two years, is now going off to Germany taking £650,000 of UK taxpayers' money with him as a generous dowry."
The EPSRC struck a deal in 2001 with its German counterpart, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, stating that research grants could move with researchers between the two countries.
The council has decided to extend this outside Germany, and all UK research councils have decided to follow suit. An informal agreement has been made with 12 funding agencies across Europe.
Professor Richards warned that while such a policy might sound "admirable and benign", in reality the UK was being naive about the implications.
He said: "This possibility makes UK academics very attractive to continental universities, especially given the size of some UK grants. They would only have to offer a generous salary, with us providing the research funding."
He stressed that the situation could become more serious as the research councils bumped up their grants in the move towards paying the full economic costs of research. In theory the pendulum should swing both ways - with UK universities equally able to net lucrative research contracts from elsewhere in Europe.
But Professor Richards said that it was more common for UK researchers to go to the continent than the other way around.
He added: "Bringing academics in the other direction, from Germany to the UK, is hampered by the golden handcuffs that keep scientists in their homeland, since German academics are civil servants with a non-contributory pension. All this results in a very unbalanced market."
Alan Sked, senior lecturer in international history at the London School of Economics and a leading Eurosceptic, said: "This is kneejerk political correctness. In the name of a higher good, which is notional, a great deal of damage may be done to universities."
He added: "Obviously, universities should be part of a worldwide academic community. But if money is coming from a British source I don't think we should simply smile when it goes elsewhere; £650,000 must be a large hole in a university."
But the research councils said this week that there was no need for panic.
The EPSRC stressed that only five researchers had taken their research council grants abroad since the agreement was first made in 2001.
Stuart Ward, director of resources at the EPSRC, said: "The introduction of full economic costs might possibly make UK academics more attractive for recruitment by institutions overseas, but it will also make sure the UK has a well-funded regime that will make it a very appealing research environment."
He said that Professor Richards was the first to raise such concerns, but that the research councils would continue to monitor the situation.
Martin Penny, director of the UK Research Office, a European advisory service for universities based in Brussels, said: "The important thing to realise here is these are reciprocal agreements. I don't see any real alarm bells for the academic community as it should work both ways."