Already in 2020, the United Kingdom’s participation in the Horizon program was negotiated, but the British government complained of continued delays due to disagreements over post-Brexit trade agreements in Northern Ireland. According to the European Commission, “This mutually agreed solution comes as a result of in-depth discussions between the two parties” and is “mutually beneficial”.
“Today’s agreement is fully consistent with the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The United Kingdom will be obliged to contribute financially to the EU budget and will be subject to all TCA safeguards”, the Community Administrator added.
Rishi Sunak, for his part, announced that British scientists can reapply for grants from these programs from this Thursday, a move welcomed by the country’s scientific community.
“We have worked with our EU partners to ensure this is the right deal for the UK, opening up unparalleled research opportunities and the right deal for British taxpayers.”said the British Prime Minister.
The deal was sealed on Wednesday night and was designed to be “tailored”, including issues such as “better financial conditions for the association”, according to a British official.
British co-operation in scientific projects
The EUR 95.5 billion scientific research project Horizonte, in the words of Sunak, The “The world’s largest research collaboration program” and requested that the United Kingdom return to participation “with a customized contract with better financial conditions”.
In this way, from January 2024, British researchers and institutions can compete like their counterparts from EU member states. Under this agreement, As an associate member, the United Kingdom must make a financial contribution to the EU budget with an average of 2.6 billion euros per year.
According to London, British taxpayers will no longer pay for time taken out of the programs from 2021, and an automatic repayment mechanism is in place if British scientists receive significantly less money than UK scientists put into the program.
This political agreement still needs to be ratified by the European Council before it can be formally adopted by the EU-UK Special Committee on Participation in EU Programs.
In addition to the Horizonte project, The United Kingdom will also be an associate member of Copernicus, the European Earth observation project that provides information from satellites and other sources for future weather forecasts.. However, the prime minister added that it would not be part of the Euratom nuclear programme.
The UK has previously been one of the main beneficiaries of EU grants under the Horizon programme, which is used to fund basic scientific and technological research.
Ahead of leaving the EU, a repeated failure by British universities to secure post-Brexit access to European research funds could seriously undermine the UK’s academic leadership and lead to many researchers leaving the country, they warned.
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