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More than 60 Scottish medical experts specialising in areas such as cancer, neuroscience and genetics have signed an open letter warning that their cutting-edge research would be "eroded and lost" after a yes vote in the independence referendum.
The group of 65 university professors, writing for the pro-UK campaign Academics Together, said that Scotland's research contribution was "cost effective and world class, with a tremendous history of achievement in benefitting patients".
"This stands to be eroded and lost over time if we vote for independence. It makes sense to foster a strong and distinctive Scottish biomedical research sector within the UK," they said.
Their letter was released by the official no campaign Better Together after the Guardian disclosed that senior academics and university administrators fear there will be a brain drain of top researchers after independence.
Academics and university sources said they knew of top researchers already being headhunted because of the referendum and that some researchers were planning to quit their posts if Scotland voted yes, because of fears their funding would be cut off.
They fear that Scottish scientists and researchers will lose access to billions of pounds of UK funding and joint projects funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK), which has a £3bn a year budget, threatening the world-leading status of Scotland's top universities.
Scottish universities win about 12% of RCUK's annual spending on research grants, roughly 50% more than Scotland's per capita share, they argue. In a statement, RCUK said it supported a no vote – a policy consistent with UK government policy.
RCUK, which runs seven separate research councils covering areas such as medicine, engineering, biotechnology and physics, said continued funding of Scotland's universities "is just one of many issues that are extremely uncertain" if Scotland became independent.
"This uncertainty is not good for Scotland," it said.
Members of the pro-independence group Academics for Yes argue that, by including Scotland's share of RCUK's £1bn a year capital spending, the average annual gap in RCUK funding in Scotland is only £28m a year more than Scotland's per capita tax share – a tiny fraction of Scottish government spending.
The Scottish government insists that it would top up the universities' research budget after independence.
A source close to Mike Russell, the Scottish education secretary, said the academics' concerns were misplaced.
"We have already made clear that in all circumstances we will guarantee that research funding is maintained during and after Scotland's transition to independence," he said.
Speaking in Dundee on Monday, Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, said the country was one of the world's wealthiest, richer per head than France, the UK and Japan. Independence would enable it to prosper.
"Because the facts are now out there, more and more people are waking up to the opportunity of a lifetime from a yes vote because we'll have the security of Scotland's wealth and vast resources plus control of economic policy that puts job-creation in Scotland first," he said.
Claiming that under devolution Scottish universities had prospered, the Academics Together group said that status would be put at risk if, as they feared, an independent Scotland would be forced to cut public spending and they were barred from normal RCUK funding.
"Independence would disrupt the integrated research network which has provided an outstanding research environment for the whole of the UK," their joint letter said.
"Research integration has also allowed Scottish scientists to be at the forefront of their disciplines internationally and this will be hard to sustain in an independent Scotland."
Professor Hugh Pennington, the eminent bacteriologist, and a founder of Academics Together, said: "Our universities and the research projects they produce are the envy of the world. We have the talent but also because we punch above our weight to secure UK research investment we would not have access to otherwise."
A spokesman for Academics for Yes said Scotland did worse than other parts of the UK for funding for large research centres or for commercial research and development.
He insisted independence would allow Scotland to invest more intelligently in its domestic research effort.
"The Scottish government is committed to proper funding of research and other benefactors will support quality research wherever it takes place. Charities already raise substantial funds in Scotland," he said.
"On the one hand, we have the UK and England contexts of cuts in research and science funding, high student fees with unsustainable loan funding, an immigration policy that is preventing and deterring international student recruitment and the possibility of an exit from the EU and its research funding.
"And, on the other, we have a Scottish government committed to funding research, to free access to universities for residents and to attracting international students. Independence will protect Scotland's universities and allow appropriate research priorities to be determined."
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