The UK agreed to associate to Horizon Europe almost exactly one year ago, on 7 September 2023. Association took effect on 1 January, meaning UK researchers, innovators and businesses have been eligible for EU funding in almost all areas of Horizon for around nine months.
The announcement was greeted with delight across the sector, which had been pushing to sign up to the world’s largest international R&D programme for several years.
We also knew this was just the start. Although the UK’s performance in European Research Council grants had held up well during the period of uncertainty, its participation in the collaborative Pillar II more than halved by comparison with Horizon 2020 (Horizon Europe’s predecessor) in 2023. This reflects the fact that UK institutions were unable to coordinate collaborative grants, as well as the impact of uncertainty upon potential partnerships, which depressed UK participation in Pillar II.
It’s good to be back
So what do we know at the moment about UK performance in Horizon Europe since association? Somewhat frustratingly, less than we might like. Although the UK formally joined on 1 January, many of this year’s call deadlines were for the 2023 Work Programme, meaning they were still covered by the UKRI Guarantee. We can expect more information to start coming out over the autumn and winter.
However, the European Research Council did publish the list of ERC grantees from the first round of Work Programme 2024’s Proof of Concept grants in July – and from this we now know that UK institutions won the largest number of any country. This year’s Starting Grants were announced yesterday, and UK-based institutions are hosting 50 grantees: the third-largest number, up from fifth last year, and returning to levels seen in 2021 (though not matching 2022’s peak of 70).
This continues the UK’s historic strength in Pillar 1: for the past couple of years, UK-based researchers have generally been in the top three countries when it comes to ERC participation. It is good news for research in general, and the UK in particular, that ERC grants are rising from €2.3 billion to €2.7 billion in 2025 – giving even more opportunity for UK researchers to benefit.
Meanwhile, though it will take some time for applications to get fully up to speed, we are already seeing encouraging green shoots in some Pillar II collaborations for this year. Plenty of Work Programme 2023 grants are yet to start being used, so it’s early days for Work Programme 2024, but data for three calls (worth nearly €88.4 million) is available on the EU’s Horizon dashboard. The UK secured just over €8.5 million (9.65 per cent). This is a very small sample size, but just under ten per cent is an encouraging figure, given how early this is in the UK’s association to Horizon.
Against uncertainty
Universities have a role to play beyond simply applying for funds. Many are putting their money where their mouth is to support collaborations and maximise the advantages of reassociation, even at a time of straitened HE finances: Imperial’s Horizon Connect and Glasgow’s Horizon Europe Network seed funds have specifically targeted Pillar II collaborations, for instance.
Meanwhile, universities are working hard to get the message out to academics and encourage them to take part – both by upskilling new applicants and encouraging those who have succeeded before to apply again. The Russell Group and Universities UK have also put on events to support research managers as they engage more fully with Horizon – this continues to be a priority.
One thing the UK can do to help boost participation is to align its bilateral and multilateral research collaboration efforts. The focus on Horizon participation in dialogues with France, Germany and Italy earlier this year was warmly welcome, as was the UK-Germany joint declaration’s reference to research and innovation as a shared priority last week, showing how these can go hand in hand.
Our sense is also that academics in other European countries are sometimes still uncertain about the UK’s role in Horizon: messaging from universities and from the UK’s Science and Innovation Network can help here. Finally, we shouldn’t neglect the UK’s links outside Europe: new Horizon associates Canada and New Zealand have longstanding R&D links with the UK, and we can work together to enhance our offer to EU partners.
The future
We should also recognise that Horizon Europe participation now and our participation in the next EU framework programme in future are not separate questions.
Multinational collaborations take time and effort to build up, meaning that certainty is important for would-be partners. Discussions about the shape of Horizon Europe’s successor FP10 are already well under way, and will pick up pace once a new European Commission is installed later this autumn. The more confident researchers, innovators, businesses and universities on both sides of the Channel can be that the UK will sign up to FP10, the more confident they are likely to be in signing up to complex, long-term relationships.
We are, of course, at the beginning of a new Parliament, and the government has placed a “reset” in EU-UK relations at the top of the agenda. Science and technology are an obvious area where our interests align, as like-minded partners facing many of the same challenges. They can also complement the government’s proposed EU-UK security pact.
From artificial intelligence to climate change, research and innovation are vital to our security. There is a major opportunity, in resetting UK-EU relations, to deliver a stable, secure basis for researchers, businesses and innovators working across borders. One year on from deciding to associate to Horizon, we hope it will be taken.
