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The new deal was announced by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Prof Gurdyal Besra FRS, President of the Microbiology Society, said:
“Pressing global challenges, such as the rise of antimicrobial resistance and climate change can only be tackled through ambitiously funded international collaboration programmes. Microbiologists working on these issues, and other major threats, welcome the recent announcement as a positive step towards the UK accessing Horizon Europe and other international research endeavours. Since Brexit, UK researchers have been locked out of word-leading programmes. The Microbiology Society will closely follow the negotiation progress and repeats its call for an immediate association agreement to see the UK join Horizon Europe.”
Tom Grinyer, Chief Executive, Institute of Physics (IOP), said:
“Now that a Northern Ireland deal has been reached, the Institute of Physics believes the government must honour its commitment to UK science and innovation and associate to Horizon Europe as soon as possible.
“Being frozen out of Horizon Europe – the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme – has been costly to UK and European science and the sooner we negotiate access, the better for Britain’s economy, productivity and science superpower ambitions.”
Dr Mark Downs, Chief Executive, Royal Society of Biology (RSB), said:
“The Royal Society of Biology is delighted to hear a statement at the press conference in Windsor that the door is now open for Horizon association discussions. This is something the scientific community has been hoping and advocating for. We now seek clarity on next steps as a matter of urgency – the Government needs to secure the potential of UK science with international collaboration and the development of research environments in which it can thrive.”
Prof Sir Adrian Smith PRS, President, Royal Society, said:
“With the Northern Ireland protocol impasse resolved, we need to swiftly secure access to the EU’s international research programmes.
“We welcome Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment to progressing association as soon as the Windsor Framework is implemented.
“It is more than two years since the Government agreed association to Horizon Europe, Euratom and Copernicus – two years of delays that have damaged science across Europe. These schemes support outstanding international collaboration, and the sooner we join them, the better for everyone.
“The Government has stated that the UK is more committed than ever to strong research collaboration with our European partners. In light of the recent return to the Treasury of a £1.6 billion underspend that was intended for association to Horizon Europe, it is reassuring that Treasury sources are now reported as saying that the money will be spent in subsequent financial years.”
Prof Sir Jim McDonald FREng, President, Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), said:
“The strong preference of the Academy and the wider global research and innovation community has always been for the UK to associate with Horizon Europe, and we are hopeful that today’s announcement brings that closer. However, we believe it is likely that, given the delays that have already occurred, there will be significant further negotiation of the practicalities needed before association can be confirmed. Whatever the final outcome, and given the significant mutual value to be had, we hope that UK and European researchers and innovators will continue to collaborate through all the mechanisms that will be available to them.”
Dr Daniel Rathbone, Assistant Director, Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), said:
“The UK’s science relationship with the EU has been ‘on ice’ for the last few years, with the UK’s association to Horizon Europe stalled pending resolution of the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) negotiations. Therefore, I am thrilled that President von der Leyen said that today’s NIP agreement is ‘good news for scientists and researchers across the UK and EU’ and that work can start on association immediately, once the NIP deal is implemented. Negotiators should now press to associate the UK to Horizon Europe as soon as possible. UK and EU scientists are ready to go with collaborations and projects that will be of great benefit to people and businesses across the UK and Europe.
“There are likely to be issues to be resolved around the UKs financial contribution, because the programme is now two years old, but these are very solvable, especially with renewed goodwill on both sides.”
Prof Dame Anne Johnson PMedSci, President, Academy of Medical Sciences, said:
“With progress on the Northern Ireland Protocol tantalisingly close, the largest barrier to achieving UK association to Horizon Europe may shortly be lifted. I urge all sides to come together now to resolve the long-standing impasse and secure the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe, to the benefit of patients’ health and wellbeing in UK and Europe.
“The Academy, together with the wider scientific community, has repeatedly highlighted that full UK participation in Horizon Europe is the best possible outcome for research and for the health of people everywhere. Achieving this would the single biggest step we can take right now to deliver on the UK’s ambitions to be a world leader in science.”
Prof Sir John Hardy FRS FMedSci, Chair of the Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease, University College London (UCL), said:
“If we can rejoin Horizon 20/20 it will, of course, be great news for UK science. Whilst money is always important for research, collaboration is just as important and the UK dropping out of these collaborative schemes did harm to our standing and some of that harm will be irreversible: grants will have been written without us and we will now have to try and rejoin these networks, some of which we once led, as supplicants.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64790193
Declared interests
The nature of this story means everyone quoted above could be perceived to have a stake in it. As such, our policy is not to ask for interests to be declared – instead, they are implicit in each person’s affiliation.