The UK's participation in Horizon Europe - the EU's program for research and innovation - was one of the impacts of Brexit, affecting stakeholders on both sides of the Channel. The good news is that the UK is now back in after several years of disassociation, in a breakthrough widely welcomed by Europe’s R&D community.
It’s certainly good news for potential employees and employers.
The euphoria was tempered a little by some regrets that it had taken so long, and concerns about opportunities already lost.
Horizon is the world’s largest multilateral research programme, with a budget of €95.5 billion during its current phase (2021 to 2027). As of January, the UK’s participation was half what it had been under the previous ‘Horizon 2020’ programme, dropping from the third largest participant to seventh.
The University of Oxford received €523 million from Horizon 2020, but only €2 million from the first few years of Horizon Europe. That’s low, even allowing for phasing that tends to skew funding towards the later years. And Cambridge University, which had won €483 million from the previous programme, had won nothing at all from the current one.
However, the UK was never shut out of the ‘Pillar 2’ projects, which tackle industrial and global challenges (although even here its participation fell from 6.8% to 5%, or fifth to eighth place).
The UK government also introduced a scheme through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to make up the grants that UK researchers had won but were unable to receive from Europe.
UK research will no doubt lose something overall, but it can regain some ground by 2027.
Responding to the news about the UK re-joining Horizon, Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Nearly three quarters of respondents to our survey of cancer researchers cited funding from the EU as important for their work.
“It is essential that the European Commission, the UK Government and UK research funders work with urgency to rebuild the strong position the UK occupied in the Horizon programme, and get funds and global collaboration flowing again into our research institutions,” she added.
Horizon Europe is about more than money
While the politics of the UK’s disassociation from Horizon was mainly about funding, for the scientists it was never all about the money. High level, ambitious research needs a variety of partners, diversity and top talent – wherever they are on a continent or indeed the world.
“The collaborative, international research this agreement enables will be vital to accelerate developments that can save and improve the lives of the millions of people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK and Europe,” said Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, welcoming the new deal.
He added that the deal will facilitate renewed collaborations across Europe, “Cementing the UK’s position as a leading research destination and attracting top scientific talent from around the world to deliver future ground-breaking discoveries.”
Collaborations and networks are vital and these have suffered from the UK’s diminished role. Even before Brexit, UK researchers found themselves left out of project proposals due to the uncertainty around the UK’s place in Horizon following the 2016 vote.
After Brexit, some EU researchers took their work back to the EU. The number of EU researchers in the UK plummeted. Some UK leads in long-established projects had to step down as the UK was no longer allowed to head Horizon projects.
Until the UKRI stepped in to replace lost funding, UK researchers in Horizon were faced with having to move to the EU to keep their work going.
This wasn’t just bad for the UK – it was bad for the EU too, and ultimately for scientific discovery and technological development. Horizon aims to be an important source of innovation and to boost competitiveness and growth.
Opening the door to talent
The move to re-join Horizon was welcomed as making a real difference to the cross-border movement of talent by the leaders of top research institutions.
“I don’t know what took so long,” said Prof Matthew Freeman, Head of Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, “but this news will make it much easier for those of us who spend time trying to recruit the best scientists from around the world to come to Britain.”
Prof Siddharthan Chandran, Incoming Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, commented: “Membership of Horizon gives us access to world-class European scientific talent, infrastructure and data, which will only strengthen the research conducted here on UK soil.”
So having the UK back in Horizon is good news for researchers and their employers not just in the UK but in the EU and perhaps even beyond. And, more indirectly, others working in STEM companies who might benefit from the research results and the economic growth that flows from innovation.
