Universities warned to plan for EU funding gap as talks stall

The problem is that politicians are attempting to micromange research funding. They should confine themselves to deciding how much money from the EU budget should be spent on research, where it goes ought to be at the discretion of the funding body rather than dictated by them. It's a perennial problem, politicians keep trying to meddle with things they don't understand, ignoring the experts who are hired to deliver that level of direction. Just how to persuade them that the ability to win an election does not confer superpowers of understanding is the difficult question, though!