The UK government has outlined contingency plans if the UK fails to join the €95bn Horizon Europe research programme. The proposals, published at the end of July, set out measures to provide UK researchers with the funding that they would have received from the seven-year initiative. The UK government says that the “transitional measures” are designed “to ensure the stability and continuity of funding for researchers and businesses”. For some, however, the delay over whether the UK joins the Horizon programme is already having a huge impact on their work and collaborations. 

Participation in Horizon Europe, which began in 2021, was agreed at the end of 2020 as part of the post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and European Union. The UK is meant to be joining Switzerland, Norway and 14 other non-EU nations as an “associated” member of Horizon Europe. The association agreement, however, was not signed when the UK–EU trade deal was agreed and since then it has become a bargaining chip in other political issues related to Brexit, particularly disagreements over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The UK government maintains that it is committed to association with Horizon Europe, but it also needs to protect and support the research and innovation sector should the process not be completed. 

There is a danger the UK becomes a bureaucracy superpower rather than a science superpower

John Krebs

In November last year, the UK government agreed to underwrite successful applicants to Horizon Europe. The latest proposals continue this guarantee, with funding for successful applications to Horizon Europe grants being replaced if the UK is unable to associate. The UK government also commits to supporting “in-flight” applications – those that have not been evaluated by the European Commission at the point of “non-association” – by assessing them through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant schemes. If association fails, there will be funding for UK participation in Horizon Europe schemes as “Third Country” applicants – but such projects require at least three other applicants from EU states, or associated countries.

The contingency document also outlines commitments to increase innovation support, particularly for small- and medium-sized businesses, and provides funding for UK institutions that have been most affected by the loss of Horizon Europe talent funding. There are also plans to launch a “new flagship talent offer” that the UK government says will provide the same career benefits and prestige as the Marie Curie and European Research Council (ERC) schemes. 

The Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, has welcomed the transition plan. “The announcement of its transitional plans to support UK R&D in the event that the UK does not secure an association… provides much-needed short-term reassurance,” says IOP’s new chief executive Tom Grinyer.

That view is backed by Peter Mason, head of global research and innovation policy at Universities UK. “The transitions document is welcome in that it provides certainty over what would happen in the short-term if non-association were to be confirmed, but there is still this lingering question about clarity over the long-term plans,” he told Physics World. Mason questions how the new flagship talent offer would work and what plans are in place to allow UK universities to attract and retain talent. 

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Robin Grimes, a materials scientist at Imperial College London and foreign secretary of the Royal Society, fears, however, that UK association with Horizon Europe is becoming increasingly unlikely. He says the research programme is not just about money, but also about the multilateral international collaboration it enables, which will be very difficult to replace. Grimes worries that the UK’s position in the initiative is already being damaged as it is not involved in deciding what research areas will get priority in the future. “I don’t see it so much as when [association] is going to completely fail, I would say it is in the process of failing,” he says.

Indeed, at a briefing for the release of a report in early August from the House of Lords science and technology committee, co-author John Krebs criticized the UK’s failure to finalize association with Horizon Europe. “Cutting ourselves off from the biggest international collaborative programme is a remarkably inept thing to do,” Krebs said. Discussing the government’s plan to become a global science and technology “superpower”, Krebs noted there is no clear strategy to realize the ambition. He said the current approach “feels like setting off on a marathon with your shoelaces tied together” and cautioned that “there is a danger the UK becomes a bureaucracy superpower rather than a science superpower”.

Moving on 

UK organizations are still able to apply for funding from Horizon Europe – although cash cannot be released until association has been ratified – but there are signs that this process is starting to fall apart. Accelerator physicist Carsten Welsch, who is head of physics at the University of Liverpool, UK, was recently awarded €2.6m in funding to lead a Marie Curie Doctoral Network. Welsch told Physics World that while he was “extremely happy” to be awarded the competitive grant, a few weeks later the EU informed him that UK institutions can no longer receive such funding or lead projects because the UK’s association with Horizon Europe is not complete.

Welsch says that such decisions are devastating for UK institutions. Liverpool has had to transfer its co-ordinating role to another institute – the INFN in Italy – and he can no longer recruit and supervise PhD students as Marie Curie fellows in other countries. “Liverpool has been completely marginalized,” adds Welsch, whose work relies on collaborations that have been fostered for over a decade. “[To see these] being openly questioned is really heart-breaking.” 

UK researchers and institutions are having to go the extra mile to persuade partners to keep them involved due to the uncertainty over our status

Peter Mason

UK-based scientists awarded ERC grants have also had their funding axed. Successful applicants were warned by the ERC that if associate membership of Horizon Europe was not approved by 29 June, they would lose their funding unless they moved institution. When the deadline passed, the ERC confirmed that 19 researchers had decided to relocate to a host institution in the EU, or an associated country, taking their awards with them. Grants awarded to 115 researchers will now be terminated.

Welsch says that the situation is slightly better for grants where the UK institution is a partner in the project. They are still able to carry out the work outlined in the original proposal, but the money comes from the UKRI guarantee fund rather than from Brussels. It does require additional paperwork, however, and Welsch says that European researchers are starting to query whether they should include UK institutions on future proposals. “UK researchers and institutions are having to go the extra mile to persuade partners to keep them involved due to the uncertainty over our status,” adds Mason. 

The impasse is also deterring UK-based scientists from competing for European funding altogether. Carla Molteni, a physicist at King’s College London who is president of the Association of Italian Scientists in the UK, says that researchers are still being encouraged by their institutions to continue to apply for European programmes. “But in reality, applications are going down because it is a lot of work, with no guarantee and clarity,” she says. “Brexit has been very demoralizing for European researchers in the UK.” Molteni maintains that since Brexit, European researchers have been leaving the UK and the failure to associate just makes things worse. “It does make the UK less attractive,” she adds. 

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Karen Kirkby, who leads proton therapy research at the University of Manchester, UK, and the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, describes the current situation as “a nightmare”. Kirkby has led many international projects, forming networks and getting people to work together. “At the moment I can do that, but then I have to hand it over to someone else to lead because we can’t be the co-ordinator,” she says. Kirkby’s work requires international collaborations because many of the cancers she works on are rare and there are not enough cases in one country to conduct clinical trials. Kirkby now expects to lose people given that other countries can offer them the benefits of Horizon Europe.

There is unlikely to be any immediate progress on the UK’s association with Horizon Europe anytime soon as the UK government has said that it will not be making any significant policy decisions before the conclusion of the Conservative leadership race, which is expected on 5 September.