Government opens door for talks on Horizon Europe association

The Government has given a green light to negotiations on association to Horizon Europe, as it published its negotiating position on the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU.

In response, Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society said:

“Today’s announcement is very welcome. It gives a green light to start negotiating association to Horizon Europe and other science areas where international collaboration is widely recognised as being in everyone’s best interests. We now need a quick start to negotiations and for the Treasury to use the Budget to recommit the funds that will make association possible.

“If we enter 2021 without an association agreement, we could damage our scientific competitiveness for years to come. That could in turn threaten the future of thousands of UK scientists, the communities that surround them and scientific progress on tackling issues such as climate change.

“Europe was the home of the Enlightenment and the birth place of modern science but when I had to make a decision in 1971 of where to go from India, the centre of gravity of science and innovation had shifted to the US.  However, the recent decades of close cooperation and collaboration, facilitated by continent wide funding programmes, made Europe a global scientific powerhouse again. Surely no one wants to throw that away.”

Read more about the Royal Society's work on Brexit and UK science.