Leaving the European Union would harm science in the UK, writes Julian Huppert, a University of Cambridge scientist and former Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, at the Guardian.
Cambridge, he notes, receives a fair amount of EU funding as about a quarter of the university's research funding comes from the EU. Further, a number of its students go on Erasmus exchanges in other parts of Europe and students from other spots in the EU come to Cambridge, where they spend money, he adds.
As MP, Huppert says he asked Cambridge residents what they thought the consequences of leaving the EU would be. They told him that leaving the EU would affect whether they could export, attract investment, and recruit. "They were clear about the massive harm leaving the EU would cause to us and our prosperity," he says.
But, he adds, Cambridge isn't unique in that regard. He says that while it might be more directly affected, those same factors would affect the rest of the UK.
"Less support for science and innovation, tougher markets to try to sell to, more trouble getting the right skilled people for key jobs. None of this is good news for businesses of any size here in the UK," Huppert writes. "The risk of leaving is huge."