![]() Of course, in the uncertainties of no-deal Brexit planning, contingency work had already been done to map out the path away from Horizon. Ministers took the decision to associate largely to avoid the disruption of pivoting into the unknown – but it was a decision taken through gritted teeth. 2 Even in BEIS, where the full-benefits-of-international-collaboration assumptions had been dialled up to the max, Horizon Europe was judged as barely worth it for the UK when compared with even a simply sketched ‘Plan B’. In late 2019 it became clear that the Commission would be charging Salt Bae steak prices for the hamburger of association, just so our UK scientists could pick the ERC sesame seeds off the top of the bun. The suggestion that we fund our UK R&D instead had obvious political appeal. More importantly, despite the supposed unanimous backing in cabinet for association to Horizon Europe to be included in the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement, some in the UK government have never been entirely comfortable with the idea that we should hand over billions of pounds of science and technology funding to a foreign power. But our exposure to monkey business in space policy is a story for another blog post.) That episode had precipitated what one space agency official colourfully described as a “relentless campaign of Parisian dickbaggery” that has continued to this day. Theresa May had already thrown her toys out of her pram over EU constraints placed on our future participation in the Galileo satellite programme. ![]() (The signs were already there that joining any EU programme wouldn’t be easy. You could almost hear the French government chuckling into their chardonnay. BEIS officials and ministers seized upon the steer, and with their repeated reassurances to the sector that association remained the top priority of the government, the negotiating position was set. #Over the horizon full#No matter that he hadn’t examined the detail, including the possibility of continued participation as a non-associated third country, or that the humungous spending delta between that and full association had not yet become clear. ![]() ![]() Indeed, I recall Dom saying in a key meeting about Horizon that science was the kind of area where we should be friendly and cooperative with the Europeans – citing particle physics at CERN as something that should obviously continue. The sector has lobbied hard and effectively.ĭuring the Cummings days, when Downing Street had made backing exceptional scientific genius a primary purpose of statecraft, there was tentative support for association. For British universities, the UK’s continued membership of Horizon Europe, as an “associate member”, has therefore been among their key asks of any form of Brexit. Such awards support the inflow and outflow of exceptional talent from our research-performing institutions, enhancing their attractiveness and global relevance. And we became particularly accustomed to benefitting from some of its niche elements, including the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: highly competitive (and therefore prestigious) grant awards for research and training. Its predecessor framework programmes represented strikingly good value for the UK as a member state of the bloc: we won considerably more funding from Horizon 2020 than we had any right to, given our relative contribution via the EU’s multiannual financial framework. As anyone reading this should be aware, Horizon Europe is the EU’s flagship, multi-year, multi-pillar funding framework for R&D. ![]()
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