Blog: Should research by academics whose institutions receive EU money be discredited?

Should research which Eurosceptics don’t like be ignored, if the academics who publish it, or the institutions they work for, have ever received money from the EU? That’s the insinuation of at least some Eurosceptics, not only in response to research on the positive benefits of the free movement of EU citizens published in November 2014, but also as regards the author of this blog in particular.

It’s tempting to ignore this line of argument, as indeed I did when it was first used against me last year. But I suspect that it will be used again and again in the build-up to a referendum on British exit from the EU (in the event that we have one), in an attempt to instantly discredit anyone who submits objective evidence supporting the pro-European side of the debate. So it’s important to tackle this line of argument right now.