European Commission encourages applications from, and collaboration with, UK-based researchers
The Brexit trade deal agreed on 24 December concluded all of the negotiations needed for the UK to associate to the EU’s 2021-27 R&D programme, Horizon Europe, and researchers based in the UK should be able to participate from the very first calls, representatives of both sides have said.
“We already have everything agreed in principle, and the only political step that remains now is European Parliament scrutiny,” said Signe Ratso, the European Commission’s deputy director-general for research and innovation, addressing a virtual conference organised by Science Business on 26 January.
“This means that UK entities will be able to participate in the first calls of Horizon Europe, provided that the protocol is adopted before the signature of the first grant agreements, and this is certainly our expectation.”
First funding calls
As previously reported by Research Professional News, Ratso said the Commission expects the first Horizon Europe funding calls to be published in April, although calls for the European Research Council (ERC) and European Innovation Council (EIC) could be published sooner.
Harriet Wallace, director of international science at the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said: “There are some formal steps needed to complete the association process. We also hope it will be possible to arrange those formal measures quickly so that it’s possible to participate from the beginning of the programme and the very first calls.”
Strong encouragement
Both Ratso and Wallace strongly encouraged researchers based in the UK to work on applications for the programme, and collaborators elsewhere in Europe to work with them as they have in the past.
“I really want to insist on this aspect: individuals, companies, research labs, universities and funding agencies based in the UK will be eligible in the first calls of Horizon Europe. So to them I want to say, ‘join’,” said Ratso. “To European researchers and companies, I want to say, ‘Your British partners are your strength to excel in Horizon Europe.’”
Areas of participation
Ratso and Wallace both confirmed that the terms set out in the trade deal on the parts of Horizon Europe that will be open to the UK are finalised. The entire programme is open, except for the equity-based fund of the EIC and specific funding calls the EU can decide to limit participation in, for reasons such as security.
Wallace said the UK “will be participating in pretty much all of the programme”. She added: “There are a couple of small things, so we’re not participating in the equity fund in the EIC, and the EU has the ability to make some limited exclusions, but we hope those will be very much the exception.”
Funding flows
Wallace agreed with a suggestion that the cost of UK participation in Horizon Europe will be just under about €2 billion per year, on average. Ratso said the terms of the Brexit deal mean that “there shouldn’t be significant imbalances either way” in terms of the amount the UK or any associated country pays in to the programme as compared with the amount it wins back.
Ratso also confirmed the report by Research Professional News that any funding won from Horizon Europe by associated countries will broadly be returned, via the country’s budget contribution, to the part of the programme from which it was won. So if, for example, researchers in the UK were to win a lot of funding from the ERC, researchers elsewhere in Europe would not be disadvantaged when applying for ERC funding, as the UK budget contribution would compensate.
Yet to be clarified
Some speakers at the event wanted more detail on questions such as how easily researchers will be able to move between the EU and the UK, and the degree to which UK R&D programmes will offer reciprocal access to the EU, as required under the terms of Horizon Europe and the Brexit deal.
Regarding mobility, Wallace said the UK has “put in place a really good global talent visa, a fast-track visa route for scientists and researchers, which has already had really good uptake. That is part of the UK wanting to make it easy for talented researchers to come to the UK.”
On reciprocity, she said: “Many of our research programmes are open to the world already, and that would obviously include the EU. In terms of specific programmes, we have to work through this on a case-by-case basis, but they are mostly already pretty open.” Ratso said the Commission would follow this closely.
Unhappy Parliament
MEP Christian Ehler said MEPs are not happy with the legal basis the Commission has used for the arrangements. He said he did not think the Parliament would withhold its consent for the Brexit deal but warned it could delay signing off the legislation underpinning Horizon Europe, and therefore the start of the programme, if MEPs feel like they have been “blackmailed” by the Commission.
Ehler also said MEPs find it “problematic” and “a kind of cherry-picking” that the UK has agreed to associate to Horizon Europe but not to the EU’s Erasmus+ mobility scheme.
Next steps
Nevertheless, Ratso expects the “relatively straightforward” formal process of completing UK association to Horizon Europe to take place shortly after the Parliament signs off the Brexit deal. All that remains is for a special committee to sign off a protocol text.
She said the Commission can begin exploratory talks with other countries that might want to associate to Horizon Europe, because there is now a political agreement on the legislation underpinning the programme, and that this would start with the countries that were associate members of the 2014-20 EU R&D programme, Horizon 2020. Other countries that want to associate to Horizon Europe will have to send formal letters of intent so that exploratory talks with them can begin.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Fortnight