The UK will join back Horizon Europe as of January 2024 while researchers can already submit proposals as of today 7 September 2023.
This is excellent news for science in Europe. The Stick to Science campaign very much welcomes this positive development which brings back actors sharing the same values. Life-changing research can continue and the brightest and best researchers can work together across borders to solve common challenges.
In February 2022, a coalition of partners launched the ‘Stick to Science’ campaign to highlight widespread support across Europe for UK and Switzerland’s involvement in collaborative scientific funding programmes. The aim of the partnership was to urge UK, EU and Swiss leaders to put political differences to one side and put an end to years of unnecessary instability in international research infrastructure. A solution has been reached between the UK and EU.
We believe swift action is now required by Swiss and EU politicians to unlock the Swiss situation too.
This is where we stand after 1,5 year:
- UK will join Horizon as of 1st January 2024.
- Together, nearly 6,000 individuals and over 300 organisations have signed their support for an open, collaborative European research space.
- Despite the strong call from the research and innovation community in Europe, Switzerland is still not associated.
- We are deeply concerned about the impact of the future of scientific collaboration in Europe and we reaffirm our commitment to champion scientific collaboration across borders. Borders shouldn’t be a barrier to scientific collaboration.
- We would like to thank all of the supporters and contributors to the campaign. We are sure many share our disappointment that a solution with Switzerland has not been found yet.
- We remain hopeful, however, that politicians in Europe will find a pragmatic solution to allow the prompt association of Switzerland to Horizon Europe.
Next steps for the UK-EU deal: The political agreement still has to be approved by the Council of the EU before being formally adopted in the EU-UK Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes.
EC communication: Commission and UK reach political agreement (europa.eu)
UK communication: Joint Statement by the European Commission and the UK Government on the UK’s association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus – (www.gov.uk)