The European Union has confirmed that the UK can start negotiations to become an associate member of the €95bn Horizon Europe research programme once the EU and UK’s agreement over the status of Northern Ireland has been ratified by the British parliament. But despite the optimistic noises from Brussels, there is disquiet in the UK scientific community due to what it sees as a shift in tone on Horizon membership from the UK government and seeming reluctance to start negotiations.

The UK government has long maintained that it wishes to join Horizon Europe, which began in 2021 and is the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme. Britain had been a full and highly successful member of previous EU research programmes for decades. Indeed, its ongoing participation, albeit as an associate member, had already been agreed at the end of 2020 as part of the post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and European Union.

However, membership stalled and became a bargaining chip in disagreements over Northern Ireland. If it were to become an associate member of the research programme, Britain would take part in projects alongside other non-EU nations, including Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine.

The Windsor Framework, which concerns the flow of trade through Northern Ireland, was agreed on 27 February and opened the door for the UK to join Horizon Europe. “The European Commission had always said that the lack of an agreement around the Northern Ireland Protocol was the thing that was stopping us moving forward with the association,” says Daniel Rathbone, assistant director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CasE). “It seems that the big political block on Horizon Europe Association is now lifting.”

Speaking at a press conference on 27 February, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said work on the UK’s association with the research programme could start “immediately” once the Northern Ireland deal is implemented. She added that this was “good news for scientists and researchers in the EU and in the UK”.

While Rathbone is pleased to see “the enthusiasm from Ursula von der Leyen” towards Horizon Europe association, he does not feel that the UK government is showing the same level of enthusiasm. It is a feeling shared by other organisations, with representatives from across the UK and EU research and development sector signing a joint statement urging rapid progress on UK association to EU programmes, including Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom.

It is a view echoed by the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World. “The government must honour its commitment to UK science and innovation”, says Tom Grinyer, the IOP’s group chief executive officer. “Being frozen out of Horizon Europe has been costly to UK and European science and the physics innovations that can transform our society and economy,” he adds.

That view is backed by Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, which also signed the joint statement. “Now is the time,” he says “for politicians on both sides to take decisive action to get association over the line, ending two years of damaging uncertainty and unlocking enormous benefits to scientists and researchers on both sides of the channel.”

Show me the money

A week before the Windsor Framework agreement was announced, CaSE revealed that the UK’s former Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) had quietly returned £1.6bn to the Treasury, which had been allocated for Horizon Europe association, or other science and innovation spending. BEIS, which used to look after British science, was disbanded last month and replaced by a dedicated new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The UK government had repeatedly stated the money would be spent on R&D, Rathbone says, but it has not explained why it had been returned, beyond accounting issues – a move that has worried scientists. “[There is] no guarantee that it comes back to R&D and no real explanation as to why it’s no longer available to science,” he adds. According to Linda Partridge, a vice president of the Royal Society, there are reports in Whitehall that “practically every department is announcing that they do science” so they can have a claim on the money.

It’s glaringly obvious that Sunak has said nothing about [Horizon Europe association], in fact he’s studiously avoided saying anything about it

Linda Partridge

Since the Northern Ireland deal was unveiled, Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak has also not publicly discussed the EU research framework. When fellow Tory MP Philip Dunne asked Sunak in parliament on 3 March if negotiations to resume association with Horizon Europe had begun, Sunak merely said that the government “will continue to work with the EU in a range of areas — not just research collaboration, but strengthening our sanctions against Russia, energy security and, crucially, illegal migration”.

Sunak had also failed to mention Horizon Europe when asked similar questions by Scottish National Party MP Kirsty Blackman and Labour MP Paul Blomfield on 27 February. “It’s glaringly obvious that Sunak has said nothing about [Horizon Europe association], in fact he’s studiously avoided saying anything about it,” says Partridge. “It’s not at all clear what has changed or why, but it’s leading to widespread consternation.”

There have also been reports that Sunak is uncertain about the benefits of the European research programme. According to the Financial Times, “senior colleagues” said the prime minister was “sceptical” about the value of Horizon European and the cost of participation. British officials said Sunak had questioned whether the UK should route its science budget through Brussels and was considering an independent global science collaboration plan, known as “plan B”.

There are a lot of countries outside Europe that have associated or would like to associate [with Horizon Europe], because they recognise the value of the programme

Daniel Rathbone

Rathbone says that Horizon Europe is about much more than just finance, such as the research collaborations it enables. He adds that arguments about alternatives enabling collaborations with countries outside of Europe are irrelevant. “There are a lot of countries outside Europe that have associated or would like to associate [with Horizon Europe], because they recognise the value of the programme,” he says. “It helps to unlock and enable collaborations outside Europe as well as inside Europe.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on 6 March, the UK science minister George Freeman noted that the government’s policy had always been to seek association with the research programme, and confirmed that the door was now open following the agreement of the Windsor Framework. Freeman added, however, that the UK’s financial contribution to the research programme needs to be negotiated.

“If you have been out of the club – not by your own volition – for two years, the monies that you would have paid in for full membership over the whole seven years clearly aren’t due, so we need to sit down and come up with a sensible package,” Freeman explained.

Delay joining the €95bn Horizon Europe programme puts UK science in limbo

Partridge agrees that there are areas that will now need negotiation. “No one’s denying that the programme has been running for a couple of years, so there will have to be financial adjustments – that’s true with any agreement, you have to hammer out the details,” she says. “What we would like to see is an announcement of goodwill towards the prospect and a serious roadmap for the negotiations.”

Rathbone, meanwhile, believes the financial issues are solvable in a relatively short period of time. “What we’d really like to see is those conversations and negotiations with the EU taking place in parallel with the final steps on the Windsor Framework, so that once that is signed off the association is ready to go,” he says.

But further confusion about the UK’s position emerged on 6 March when the UK government launched a 10-point strategy to make the UK a “science superpower” by 2030. Backed by an additional £370m in funding, it included plans to boost the economy and improve people’s lives through investment in science, technology and innovation. However, the strategy said nothing about Horizon Europe apart from confirming that the UK would continue to finance, until the end of June, existing successful Horizon grant applicants if the UK fails to associate.

Rathbone says that while the strategy is important, the idea of the UK becoming a science superpower is “dead before it’s even got going” without Horizon Europe association. “The situation is clear, everybody from industry to scientists wants this association [with Horizon Europe],” adds Partridge. “This foot dragging by the government is really baffling”.

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• Source: https://physicsworld.com/a/scientists-say-uk-must-rejoin-horizon-europe-to-bolster-science-superpower-claims/