A simple phone call between the British prime minister and the EU president and, it seems, the deal was sealed – the UK is back in Horizon Europe and here at Insight Media we couldn’t be more pleased.
With formal announcements due today (Thursday, September 7th), the UK’s science and research community will be over the moon, too. After years in the wilderness, the UK will now be a formal partner in the £81 billion research programme once again and the years of wrangling and since Brexit will be over.
There were worries that Rishi Sunak, not a natural supporter of the programme, would stall negotiations further as, keen to score political points domestically, he sought special terms over the UK’s financial contribution.
He claimed the programme to be “bureaucratic” and “unimaginative” and wanted to drive down the UK’s contribution after the EU blocked its re-entry due to the Northern Ireland protocol. It is understood now, however, that an agreement on a rebate has been agreed, paving the way for the UK to become associated with the programme and able to participate fully once again.
“While we have been able to participate in Horizon projects and receive our funding through the UK government’s guarantee scheme, our absence from the programme has been a big problem for everyone involved in R&D in the UK,” says Insight Media MD William Davis.
“From being one of the leading net beneficiaries of funding from Europe for many years, R&D income plummeted for universities, research organisations and companies like ours after the UK left the EU,” he continues. “We were not able to coordinate projects, while the uncertainty surrounding whether we would be able to get funding led to potential European partners looking elsewhere when putting together consortia. It’s been a difficult time.
“So this is fantastic news and I hope it will lead to a huge surge in opportunities for the UK to work more with our EU friends once again.
“Here at Insight Media, we are certainly raring to go and, although we are already part of many Horizon projects, it will be a special moment to be formally back in the family once again.”
- Insight Media Group (IMG) is a leading European agency specialising in communication, dissemination and exploitation strategies designed for research projects and organisation. IMG has also worked with several research funding programmes in Europe, and provides a full array of communications services from publications, event coordination and media relationships to project films, websites and exploitation planning.