UK could quit Horizon Europe talks this month, v-cs warn

Britain is on course to abandon its efforts to join the European Union’s flagship research initiative “as early as June”, causing a “lose-lose for health, wealth and well-being” across both Europe and the UK, Universities UK (UUK) has warned.

In a letter to the European Commission, published on 1 June, Swansea University vice-chancellor Paul Boyle, who is UUK’s policy lead for research, says that the UK is “on the precipice” of walking away from Horizon Europe after 17 months of waiting for its membership to be confirmed.

The EU had indicated that it would not allow UK universities to join the pan-European research project until trade issues relating to Northern Ireland, which the UK wants to renegotiate, are settled.

Many UK-based researchers have already been forced to quit research consortia given the impasse over Horizon Europe association, which would hamper projects that could have significant benefit to climate change and addressing food security, explains Professor Boyle.

“The situation is deteriorating every day that the uncertainty drags on,” he says, adding that it was “vital that both sides work together to ensure that our ability to collaborate in science is not compromised by unrelated political disputes”.

“Failure to secure UK association to Horizon Europe would be a lose-lose for health, wealth and wellbeing and would do a disservice to future generations in Europe and beyond,” continues Professor Boyle.

“We believe we are close to the precipice, based on the information we have recently received from the UK government,” he warns, saying that “their view is that the value-for-money case for UK association is weakened every day that the UK is left waiting for the arrangement to be confirmed.”

Seeking a meeting with the commission’s vice-president Maroš Šefčovič to explain “how immediate and serious this threat is”, Professor Boyle says that the UK government is “now at an advanced stage of planning large-scale, comprehensive domestic alternatives to Horizon Europe, making use of the billions of pounds of funding that have been set aside for association”.

“We believe that a decision to abandon association could come as early as June. Once the decision to shift away from participation in Horizon Europe is taken, we anticipate that it will not be possible to revert to association,” he adds.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com