The EU member brain drain
Joining the EU doesn’t improve science for the new member state
The European Research Area is often sold as a boon to nations: the collective power of EU membership fuelling innovation. From funding mechanisms such as Horizon 2020 through to cross-country collaboration, the common narrative is that the 12 Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have garnered a boost to their science output. The problem, according to a paper last month from Science Advances, is that this isn’t the case.