Lord Frost gives update on UK’s participation in Horizon Europe
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The UK had planned to contribute £15billion over seven years so it could access the £80billion pool of EU funding for Horizon Europe. This allows countries to participate in and contribute to crucial research and development (R&D) projects, whether they are part of the 27-nation bloc or not.
But the EU told Britain it cannot take part until its political feuds with the bloc, which involve disagreements on the Northern Ireland protocol and fishing licenses, are smoothed over.
This is despite Britain’s participation being a feature of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed between the UK and the EU in 2020.
Banned ever since, the UK science community has urged the Government to get a move on as researchers fear their international collaborators may slip away.
Now, Science Minister George Freeman has hinted that Britain will be allowed to rejoin Horizon Europe.
He told the Science and Technology Committee: “The Government’s policy continues to be that we want to associate.
“We negotiated that in the TCA…and 15 odd months on we’re frustrated, we understand, but we really do want to associate and we’re pushing hard.
He added that he is hoping “that geopolitical events from the Irish elections, French elections and the Ukraine situation may create a thawing”.
The French elections are scheduled to take place in April.
But if Foreign Secretary refuses to strike a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol with the EU, this could trigger Article 16.
That would mean Britain would be permanently excluded from Horizon Europe if it fails to rejoin Horizon before then.
And there are fears that this could be the case.
A source told the Times that the EU was being “totally unreasonable and basically not moving on anything”.
They added: “Liz has lost faith in the negotiations and wants the PM to tell Ursula von der Leyen to force an intense period of negotiations or trigger Article 16 by May.”
Mr Freeman has also noted that he was well aware that the delay to the UK’s associated member status to Horizon Europe is “damaging to British science”.
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But the Government has promised grants to researchers who would have otherwise would have been benefitted by Horizon Europe funding.
And in case things do not go the UK’s way, Mr Freeman has drafted up a ‘bold plan B”.
Mr Freeman said: “We spent a lot of time in October, November, December, listening to what the science community – what is it about Horizon that is so fundamentally valuable.
“The plan is to take what is known and loved about the research community today and make sure that is there.”
Mr Freeman has suggested it will involve teaming up with science and innovation powerhouses like our Five Eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US) partners, as well as countries like Japan as part of his £6billion “Global Britain Science Plan”.
In fact, in a different appearance before Science and Technology Committee, Mr Freeman agreed that universities in the US, Australia and Asia are of “better quality” than those in Europe.
Switzerland, which was also banned from Horizon Europe over political feuds, is also a science powerhouse that could be another potential partner for British researchers.
Following a visit to Geneva, Mr Freeman said: “The UK and Switzerland are science powerhouses with huge, shared research interests.
“Between us, we have nine out of 10 of the top Universities in Europe.”
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said he “fully supports” the Science Minister’s backup plan.
He said: “Frankly, over the year, looking at what we get out of Horizon, the costs, I think we can actually operate Plan B successfully. We demonstrated that in the vaccine roll-out. There are huge amounts of investment. When I travel around the world people are really really keen to invest in UK innovation. We have got a great story, and I think that Plan B.. can really work very well. We’re working full steam ahead.”
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