Via its website, the EU has made it clear, for the first time, what will happen to British participants in EU funded research, once the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.
The note, addressing UK businesses and institutions participating in Horizon 2020 projects, warns that if the UK withdraws from the EU during the grant period without any agreement being signed – the so called ‘hard Brexit’ – all UK participants will cease to be eligible to receive EU funding and will have to leave the project on the basis of Article 50 of the grant agreement.
The consequences of such a move for British science will be profound. Horizon 2020 has played – and continues to play – a vitally important part in a range of scientific and technology based research projects in the UK.
Without an agreement between the UK and the EU, not only will funding for UK-led projects end, but it also appears that UK participants could be forced out of wider European projects.
But hasn’t the UK Government promised to guarantee funding for projects currently funded by the EU, including science grants? Well, yes, but many UK scientists have already spoken about being asked to leave collaborations, while others have said they have been excluded from new bids.
UK science is facing an uncertain future. UK research and technology organisations are regularly part of extensive European-wide research projects and with the publication of this note they could now be seen as ‘unreliable’.
EU programmes aren’t simply about funding, even if the Government does deliver on its promises, it’s also about allowing researchers and scientists to collaborate across borders.
The risk to UK organisations, and the uncertainty around their role in European research, has been turned up a notch by this news and the Government needs to accelerate Brexit talks in order to provide much needed clarity.
If the Brexit negotiations fail to make substantive progress, with some ‘meat’ put on the bones of a possible deal – whether that’s a transitional arrangement or a clearly defined agreement – then there is a real risk that hundreds of UK researchers could see collaborative projects end abruptly in 2019.
British businesses are becoming increasingly anxious over their immediate future post Brexit; it appears the scientific community should be equally concerned.
