The government of the UK has announced that they will be joining the European Union‘s main scientific research program, called Horizon.
Scientists and schools in the UK can now request funds from the £81 billion (€95 billion) fund starting today.
Associate membership was accepted as a part of the Brexit trade deal when the UK officially exited the EU in 2020.
However, for the last three years, the UK has not been a part of the scheme because of a disagreement related to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said that we have made a deal that allows UK scientists to participate in a big international research program with confidence.
We have worked with our European Union partners to ensure that this agreement is favorable for the United Kingdom. It will open up exceptional research possibilities and is also beneficial for British taxpayers.
The announcement made on Thursday says that the UK will be a part of Copernicus, which is the EU’s Earth observation program worth £8bn (€9bn). Britain will not be joining a nuclear research group called Euratom R&D. However, they will still cooperate with them on nuclear fusion.
The European Commission said that the decision would be good for both parties involved. They also stated that the UK will give around €2. 6bn (£22bn) every year on average for its involvement in both Horizon and Copernicus.
The scientific and academic community is happy about the Horizon association news.
Vivienne Stern, the leader of Universities UK, said scientists will feel very relieved, as they will be able to work together in different countries and receive funding from a shared source.
I was studying a huge project that maps the human brain. It involves 500 scientists from 16 different countries and has been happening for 10 years. The projects are too big to be funded by the country’s funding methods.
And Sir Paul Nurse, who won the Nobel Prize and has been one of the strongest advocates for joining again, said: “I am very happy to see that collaborations with scientists from the EU can still happen. ” This is a very important step in improving and making our global scientific reputation stronger. ”
The UK’s connection to Horizon was approved as a general idea as part of the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), but the matter then got stuck in the argument over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The European Commission said no to letting the UK join the science and Earth observation programs until they did everything they promised to do.
Last February, Brussels and London agreed on the Windsor Framework to resolve their issues regarding Northern Ireland. This also allowed the associations to be accessed. Over the past six months, both parties have been discussing and making agreements about the money-related aspects of being part of a group.
These requirements have not yet been fully revealed, but they mean that the UK will have to give money to the EU-27 bloc based on the size of its economy. If UK scientists win a lot or very few grants, there are rules in place to evaluate their performance. However, these rules are similar to the ones already established in the TCA, according to officials from Brussels who spoke to the BBC.
In the past, UK scientists often won the most grants in the Horizon programmes. They would compete with and sometimes beat Germany, which is another strong European country in terms of scientific research.
The application numbers from UK scientists to work on European projects supported by UK government funds have decreased due to the delays and uncertainty in reaching an agreement.
The situation also caused some people from EU countries who were working in the UK to bring their studies back to their own countries or to other countries in the European Union. Furthermore, British researchers who held important positions in large, ongoing projects were obligated to resign.
Ministers and science officials want the new deal to give a boost to the science sector and motivate UK researchers to regain their leading position in European science.
Sue Ferns, who is from a place called Prospect and represents workers in research, said: “It’s good that the UK is joining Horizon again, but it should have happened a long time ago. We are now trying to catch up because we wasted a lot of time. ” Ministers now have to make sure there is enough money spent on the scientific sector for a long time – having experts in science is very important for solving the big problems we are facing now and in the future.
The Copernicus association helps UK scientists stay ahead in studying the climate and allows the aerospace industry in Britain to compete for satellite contracts worth a lot of money.
Nuclear fusion
The UK could have been a part of a European Union program called Euratom R&D, but they have decided not to pursue it anymore.
This involves studying and teaching about keeping nuclear materials safe, protecting against radiation, and managing waste.
Although it was allowed, the London government did not think that association was worth the cost.
Instead, the UK will create its own program that will focus on nuclear fusion. This is a scientific method of trying to get energy by bringing light atomic nuclei together.
It will involve working together with people from different countries. In simpler terms, the UK still has Europe’s top fusion lab called the Joint European Torus (Jet), located in Oxfordshire.
The UK government plans to support the alternative programme with £650m until 2027.
What the associations cannot change are the rules for EU or other foreign scientists who want to come to the UK for their research, and the same applies in reverse.
There is not the ability to move around freely. Scientists who want to come to the UK need special permission called visas. These visas can be really expensive and cost more than visas in other countries in the G8 group.
Michelle Donelan, who is in charge of science, innovation, and technology for the government, spoke out in support of the government’s stance on immigration on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“We need to prioritize the needs of the British taxpayer by making decisions that help us regulate immigration. ” “We promised in our plan, and we should be committed to keeping that promise and working diligently to make it happen,” she said.
However, we also want to attract highly skilled individuals from different countries to work here specifically in the fields of science and technology. This is because we aim to become a leading force in these areas by the year 2030.
The UK’s Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, was glad that the country had rejoined the Horizon program. However, he was sad about the time it took for this to happen.
“He said during his visit to Macclesfield that we feel like we’ve wasted two years and this should have happened earlier, which is a big setback. ”