In terms of EU R&D budgets, the UK is a net receiver by 63%. It contributes 5.410^9€, and receives 8.810^9€, says the Royal Society [0]. To find a stick to bea

In terms of EU R&D budgets, the UK is a net receiver by 63%. It contributes 5.410^9€, and receives 8.810^9€, says the Royal Society [0]. To find a stick to beat a dog in the EU budget is easy. After looking closely at UK financial contributions to the EU, the conclusion of a London School of Economics study[1] summarises things quite more eloquently: "In assessing the UK contributions to the EU’s finances, there are interpretations which are reasonable and those which are ‘spun’ to make political points, even though they are – bluntly – an abuse of statistics. A normative judgement about whether what the UK’s contributes (however measured) to the EU budget could be better spent on other public projects or whether the ‘membership fee’ yields sufficient benefits to be justified is beyond the scope of this paper. But the evidence is clear that, although it is a net contributor to an extent comparable with several other Member States of a similar level of prosperity, the UK does not face an unfair share of the burden of the gross costs of paying for Europe." [0] https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/projects/eu-uk-funding/uk-membership-of-eu.pdf https://royalsociety.org/~/media/policy/projects/eu-uk-fundi... (page 12) [1] https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67030/1/Begg_EU%20budget.pdf https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67030/1/Begg_EU%20budget.pdf