Global research collaborations of the United Kingdom in the post-Brexit era

Global research and collaborations have been expanding at unprecedented levels over the last decades. However, Brexit—the UK’s decision to leave the European Union may represent a unique case within this global trend, and its effect on the position of UK higher education in international research collaborations globally needs to be investigated. This study utilises large bibliometric data (N = 85,070 papers published between 2010–2022) to investigate the global research collaborations of the UK before and after Brexit, focusing on publication volumes, research funding patterns and citation impact. The findings indicate a reconfiguration of the UK’s global research collaborations, specifically with the EU, evidenced by proportional decreases in collaboration volumes, leadership roles, and citation recognition. Conversely, the UK’s research collaborations with China-based scholars have increased, with a growing proportion of research funding coming from Chinese sources. Additionally, there has been an increase in collaboratively-authored publications without reported funding with regions such as Western Asia, North Africa and Southern Asia. This study is among the first to explore the effects of Brexit on global research collaborations, as it uses the accumulated numeric data over the years since Brexit. Given that the broad patterns from the retrospective large-scale data are only emerging, the study holds significant implications for policymaking and understanding the global research system. Policymakers and researchers can utilise the early empirical evidence offered in this article to proactively consider the negative consequences of the changes and capitalise on the positive outcomes. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.