Sunak hails ‘right deal for country’ as UK rejoins EU Horizon project

The UK is to return to the flagship Horizon Europe science research programme, Rishi Sunak has confirmed.

The prime minister said that from Thursday, British scientists can apply once again for grants from the £85bn programme, a move that will be welcomed with jubilation from the science community in the UK which was once one of the leading beneficiaries of the fund.

Sunak said: “We have worked with our EU partners to make sure that this is the right deal for the UK, unlocking unparalleled research opportunities, and also the right deal for British taxpayers.”

The deal was sealed after a call between Sunak and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Wednesday night.

According to a Downing Street statement, the UK will also rejoin the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation satellite programme, which has been crucial in monitoring this summer’s weather events, including wildfires across Europe.

But the EU has agreed to the UK’s demand not to rejoin the Euratom programme. The UK will instead pursue a domestic fusion energy strategy.

The European Commission said the UK would contribute about £2.6bn on average a year to Horizon and Copernicus, with the UK’s contributions due to start from January 2024. Downing Street said this would also “provide breathing space to boost the participation of UK researchers in open calls for grants before we start paying into the programme”.

The deal is being seen as another reset moment for relations between the UK and the EU. Von der Leyen said: “The EU and UK are key strategic partners and allies, and today’s agreement proves that point. We will continue to be at the forefront of global science and research.”

Natalie Loiseau, French MEP, and one of the leaders of the UK-EU parliamentary partnership assembly said the deal was a sign of “a climate of restored trust”.

The science community expressed immense relief the deal was finally over the line. Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society, described the announcement as “fantastic news not just for the UK but for scientists across the EU and for all the people of Europe”.

Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, said he was “thrilled to finally see that partnerships with EU scientists can continue”.

He added: “This is an essential step in re-building and strengthening our global scientific standing. Thank you to the huge number of researchers in the UK and across Europe who, over many years, didn’t give up on stressing the importance of international collaboration for science.”

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “There will be relief throughout the research community that the uncertainty of the last two-and-a-half years has come to an end.

“Nearly three-quarters of respondents to our survey of cancer researchers cited funding from the EU as important for their work, showing how crucial Horizon Europe association is for the future of cancer research.”

In a statement, the European Commission said: “Today’s agreement remains fully in line with the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement (TCA). The UK will be required to contribute financially to the EU budget and is subject to all the safeguards of the TCA.”

The agreement will need to be ratified by member states. One diplomat warned that they would scrutinise the detail to ensure there had been no deviation from the original deal.

The UK was locked out of the Horizon programme for three years after a tit-for-tat row over the Northern Ireland Brexit trading arrangements. Lord Frost negotiated an associate membership – available for non-EU countries – in December 2020, but the deal was never ratified due to the dispute over Northern Ireland.

The way was then clear for a return to the programme in February 2023 when the Windsor framework was agreed, but negotiations dragged on over the exact financial terms.

It had been agreed from the beginning that the UK would not have to pay for the years of absence.

The deal also includes the underperformance clause of the original 2020 agreement, enabling the UK to be “compensated should UK scientists receive significantly less money than the UK puts into the programme”.

It indicates a different scheme to the correction mechanism in the original deal, which involved rebates kicking in above a certain level of thresholds.