Scientists in the UK have breathed a “sigh of relief” amid hopes that they will now benefit from the €100bn (£88.6bn) Horizon Europe programme after Rishi Sunak’s breakthrough deal with the EU over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol.
For more than two years, researchers in the UK have received little, if any, funding from the flagship EU programme because of the tangle over Brexit trade deal negotiations.
The situation has not only meant that researchers have been unable to apply for crucial grants, but has affected the ability of UK researchers to collaborate with those in the EU and led to concerns that the UK is becoming a less attractive location for top European researchers and students. Some leading scientists have already left the UK as a result.
Now researchers say they have hopes that under the Windsor framework the UK could link up with Horizon Europe, a view apparently shared by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, who described the deal with Sunak as “good news for scientists and researchers in the EU and in the UK”.
“The moment it’s implemented, I’m happy to start immediately – right now – work on an association agreement, which is the precondition to join Horizon Europe,” she said at a press conference announcing the accord.
Prof Paul Nurse, a Nobel laureate and director of the Francis Crick Institute, said the deal was good news.
“The government policy was to associate with Horizon Europe, and the only blockage to that was acrimony over the Northern Ireland protocol. So the potential solution of that problem now [leaves] the doors wide open to association, allowing government to fulfil its policy,” he said.
That, said Nurse, was crucial for the UK’s scientific standing.
“Fundamentally, there’s three main science groupings in the world: North America, Asia – increasingly focused on China – and of course Europe and if you’re outside one of those groupings, you’re going to find it very difficult to be a major science nation, because you’re not part of the collaborations,” he told the Guardian.
“You’re not part of the network. You’re not part of setting the agendas for the future. You’re sort of floating out into the cold north-east Atlantic. ”
“I think we would have not been able to maintain in an easy way a strong global position if we are outside those three groupings and Europe is the obvious one that we have to be linked with,” Nurse added.
Prof Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel laureate and former president of the Royal Society, also welcomed the development.
“It is excellent news and now that progress has been made on Northern Ireland, it should be an urgent priority for the government to work out an agreement with the EU to allow our full participation in Horizon Europe, something that will be hugely beneficial for both parties,” he said. “Science should never have been a hostage to other political issues.”
Prof Bruce Whitelaw, the director of the Roslin Institute, agreed. “If this paves the way for rebuilding closer science collaboration with our European colleagues then this is definitely good progress,” he said.
James Wilsdon, a professor of research policy at UCL, added the reassurance was encouraging for scientists. “Yesterday’s agreement has rightly been greeted with a sigh of relief by the research community, who remain strongly supportive of continued association to Horizon Europe,” he said.
But, he cautioned: “We aren’t entirely out the woods.”
Among other hurdles, Wilsdon noted it was not yet guaranteed that Sunak’s new deal would be implemented, although it seems likely. “First, the PM needs to get the deal over the line without the ERG, DUP or his predecessor sabotaging it,” he said.
What’s more, he said, even if the UK did rejoin Horizon Europe, it could take two to three years for its levels or participation in projects and consortia to return to where they were pre-Brexit.
“There needs to be fresh round of haggling between London and Brussels on costs, which I’m sure will be resolved but could take a few months,” said Wilsdon, adding it could take even longer for collaborative networks, damaged in the turmoil of the past few years, to be repaired.
Nurse said scientists in the UK would give a “huge sigh of relief”, noting the community had suffered.
“Of course, we’ve been damaged in the last year or two by not being associated and of course, we’ve lost collaborations and networks and we’ve seen reductions in the proportion of projects that we’re holding in the UK,” he said. But, he added: “It is reversible.”
Indeed, Nurse noted, while there has been political sniping, and that extreme Brexiters have not made things easy, scientists in the UK and EU were keen to link and associate.
“There might be problems that but there is real goodwill from the scientific community and hopefully a shift in the politics as well,” he said.
