海角大神

Tevva, a British zero-emissions truck manufacturer, isn鈥檛 just trying to create a replacement for diesel transports. It鈥檚 also serving as a stage for European research.

At least in a manner of speaking. As part of a project organized by Horizon Europe, the European Union鈥檚 behemoth scientific research and innovation program, Tevva is working with scientists and companies hailing from both the United Kingdom and the EU to develop the next-generation electric truck.

鈥淎nd they鈥檝e set some really aggressive objectives, with difficult range and efficiency targets,鈥� says Stuart Cottrell, Tevva鈥檚 head of energy services and government partnerships.

Having access to the capabilities of partners from countries聽such as the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece has helped Tevva see what鈥檚 possible in pushing for greater efficiency聽鈥� hauling more cargo, for greater distances, for less energy. With their zero-emissions trucks as laboratories, Tevva is helping manufacturers demonstrate their capabilities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of a two-way street. We鈥檙e developing a product, while some of them are developing tools,鈥� says Mr. Cottrell. What鈥檚 clear is that together they鈥檙e pushing the envelope. 鈥淭his depth of consortium couldn鈥檛 have been built solely in the U.K.,鈥� he says.

As Britain left the European Union, it strained the bridge between British scientists and their EU counterparts, and severed British access to Horizon Europe, the EU鈥檚 behemoth innovation-funding arm and its 鈧�95.5 billion ($104.5 billion)聽coffer. This month, after years of negotiations, the United Kingdom is back as an 鈥渁ssociate country鈥� to Horizon Europe, and the world will be better for it, scientists say.

Today鈥檚 most pressing issues require the best-trained scientific minds, and those talents are rarely contained within a single country鈥檚 borders, says Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, the U.K.鈥檚 independent science academy.

鈥淚f you just take the simple problems, pandemics, climate change, net zero 鈥� all of these require major international collaboration. Not just in terms of ideas, but it fundamentally depends on people,鈥� says Dr. Smith. 鈥淭he whole point of Brexit was Britain going it alone and doing its own stuff, but top-level science is one area where international cooperation is absolutely essential, and you can鈥檛 go it alone and be a major scientific power.鈥�

Brexit brain drain

For years, the U.K. was the No. 2 destination for scientists pursuing research, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development聽figures. But 鈥渢hat鈥檚 really been damaged by Brexit and the perception of us being cut off from the world,鈥� says Bob Ward, policy director at the London School of Economics鈥� Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. 鈥淣ot just in terms of funding and barriers to visas, but the idea that somehow the U.K. is hostile to working with others.鈥�

With Brexit, the U.K. dropped behind both China and the United States. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really anathema to the research spirit. Politicians need to realize that鈥檚 not helping the U.K,鈥� says Dr. Ward.

The stats are clear: The U.K. needs Horizon Europe, which has been part of the U.K. scientific framework for decades. Collaboration yields results. More than a third of top U.K. research papers are co-authored with European partners. Conversely, EU programs are cited three times more often compared with member states alone.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a club, a gang you need to be in if you鈥檙e the U.K. We鈥檙e not America; we鈥檙e not China,鈥� says Dr. Smith, of the Royal Society, about Horizon Europe. 鈥淭he prestige of being associated with things like the European Research Council Fellowships, being assessed by a huge pool of experts, 30,000 researchers in 30 countries ... as opposed to the alternative which is going it alone ... is pretty unthinkable.鈥�

After Brexit, the U.K. government underwrote projects 鈥渦nless and until鈥� it was able to again associate with Horizon Europe, Dr. Smith says. Still, that didn鈥檛 prevent an exodus of scientists to the EU and to the U.S. Look at those who received Europe Research Council grants, which require EU residency, he says.

鈥淭hese are the brightest and the best [scientists], these are hugely prestigious awards, and about 1 in 6 [pulled up stakes] from the U.K. and moved to the EU,鈥� says Dr. Smith. 鈥淭hat was very damaging in terms of the loss of clout of people, but also just the general mood music in and around collaboration. Then a lot of researchers in the U.K. found it quite difficult to recruit European Union postdoc researchers.鈥�

The EU also needs U.K. brainpower and institutions. Bringing them back into the EU fold is a 鈥渞eal milestone, a clear win-win for both sides and for global scientific progress,鈥� said EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova in a statement. 鈥淭ogether, we can push further and faster.鈥�

鈥淭he best science is international science鈥�

Perhaps the clearest example of how science demands international cooperation is in astronomy and its related fields.

Astrophysicist David Armstrong is running a Horizon Europe project 鈥� which the U.K. stepped in on an emergency basis to fund post-Brexit 鈥� to find Neptune-sized planets in extremely close orbit around other stars. That requires a $1.5 billion telescope facility, the clear sky of a Southern Hemispheric location, and scientific brains scattered across continents.

鈥淭he entire thing is basically international,鈥� says Dr. Armstrong, a professor at the University of Warwick. 鈥淚t has to be that way.鈥�

They use a massive telescope observatory that sits in a desert in Chile, and tap star-parameter expertise in Portugal, spectrograph scientists in Switzerland, and other teams in Argentina, the U.S., and Australia.

How did the field evolve to become so globally intertwined? For one, telescopes are expensive, and no country would want to take on that vast budget alone, Dr. Armstrong explains.

鈥淭hen you say if we鈥檙e going to build this incredible facility, we need to put it in the best possible location, and the best possible location is usually in some other country. Then you get to the sense of, 鈥榃ell, if we鈥檙e going to do all of this, you want the best possible science with it.鈥� If you want different skills, you quite often find the best person for that might be somewhere else.鈥�

鈥淭he best science is international science,鈥� says Dr. Ward, the London School of Economics policy director.

鈥淏ack in collaboration territory鈥�

Zero-emissions vehicles, tidal energy, and DNA sequencing technology have all been helped along by Horizon Europe projects. Scientists are also looking to restore ocean health and develop climate-neutral cities.

鈥淚f you look across all the impacts of science and its applications, some of the major stuff where it required really big investment and big levels of cooperation聽鈥� many of those grew out of originally EU projects,鈥� says Dr. Smith.

Collaboration also funds science that otherwise might not be tackled, or tackled so soon.

Without it, the world might have had to wait a bit longer for a hydrogen-electric truck, says Mr. Cottrell, Tevva鈥檚 partnerships director. Large companies like Volvo may have flocks of in-house researchers, but amid legacy products, shareholders, and profit margins, may not prioritize such ambitious technology.

鈥淭heir appetite and their pacing is quite different,鈥� says Mr. Cottrell. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not burdened by any of that stuff, but at the same time, we don鈥檛 have the scale to go and make all this happen by ourselves.鈥�

And now that the U.K. is back in with Horizon Europe, some hope that other corridors to the EU blocked by Brexit might reopen.

鈥淚 keep hearing signals that people want to begin talking about other collaborations,鈥� says Dr. Smith of the Royal Society. 鈥淚nstead of being a bitter standoff, we鈥檙e back in collaboration territory.鈥�