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The writer is a science commentator
Any sense of relief that a post-Brexit UK might resume links with Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship scientific research programme, is fizzling out. Despite a reported deal, it was revealed last week that Rishi Sunak was pushing back a decision on rejoining until after summer.
The delay, supposedly to ensure that the cost of associating to Horizon is good value, represents a moment of pessimism, and possibly peril, for British science. Universities and companies are being frozen out of collaborations due to the continuing uncertainty, despite the uncontested strategic and economic value of being inside the world’s largest multilateral research programme. Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, has expressed “dismay”.
Other political smoke signals add up to a gloomy outlook. Visas for visiting scientists are becoming costlier and harder to secure. The ministerial language used to talk up Pioneer, the inferior and thinly-sketched plan B for UK science if Horizon association stalls, gives it the feel of a pet project rather than a last resort.
The longer the impasse, the more likely it is for unspent Horizon money to find its way back to the Treasury — and the greater the incentive for frustrated UK-based researchers to drift elsewhere. To outsiders, British involvement in European science is now subject to political whim and therefore high-risk; overseas collaborators are acclimatising to life without it. It is hard to imagine how a government could more actively hinder the cause of UK research.
EU countries enjoy unfettered access to Horizon Europe, currently a €95.5bn 2021-2027 research programme that allows smooth collaboration across international borders. Horizon is a springboard for bringing in non-EU partners, such as Canadian participation in Sheffield university’s €2.6mn Amos project in aerospace manufacturing. Start-ups and companies can also apply for Horizon money. International partnerships are critical for addressing global challenges such as climate change, AI and energy security; the system is adept at nurturing scientific talent through awards, grants and fellowships.
Non-EU countries can apply for an “associate” membership. This is open to the UK, but only if it pays a joining fee. Every major organisation involved in UK research — including the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and the Russell Group of 24 universities — unequivocally backs the idea. A 2020 association deal was derailed by the squabble over Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. Three years later, the UK government is now questioning whether rejoining is still value for money, given Horizon is partway through its 2021-2027 programme.
While it is reasonable to seek a proportionate fee, a purely pocketbook approach to staying in European science seems risible given the economic hit we have swallowed in the name of “sovereignty”. The delay itself, meanwhile, incurs unseen costs by telegraphing a lack of seriousness. Professor Mary Ryan, vice-provost for research and enterprise at Imperial College London, said last year that researchers were being dropped or not invited to join Horizon consortiums because of the uncertainty. Academics, she added, were receiving offers to move elsewhere, despite government pledges to honour existing Horizon funding commitments.
Full association remains the best outcome for the UK and Europe, according to Ryan, who said remaining inside the European tent had “never mattered more”. “Major challenges like security, climate change, clean energy and health inequalities transcend geographical and political boundaries,” she told me this week. “European nations working together is not just expedient, but essential.” Pioneer is a lame substitute: funding is matched but subject to future spending reviews; neither can it instantly replicate Horizon’s global networks, cultivated over four decades.
In more normal times, association would have happened swiftly. But the future of UK science now lies in the hands of a weakened government inclined to prioritise symbolism over strategic thinking. In the absence of any Brexit wins, rejoining the European research project may feel like capitulation.
More awkwardly, the EU is doubling down on its climate pledges, including through Horizon Europe, just as some Conservative MPs are turning against them. One newspaper front page this week juxtaposed a story outlining the Tory retreat from green policies with dramatic photographs of British holidaymakers fleeing wildfires in Europe. The message was clear: these are not normal times.
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