Britain Aims To Rejoin EU Science Research Programme
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When it comes to life science marketing, the UK will hope there is much to sell and promote as a direct result of British scientific research. There has certainly been plenty of talk among ministers of making Britain a scientific research powerhouse, emboldened by the success of Oxford University and AstraZeneca in creating an accessible and effective Covid vaccine.
However, many have argued the UK is at a disadvantage in scientific research as a result of Brexit, since it has left behind bodies that help collaborate and fund research of various kinds.
As Politico reports, the UK is now seeking to rejoin the programme it left when Brexit was completed in 2020, including the €95.5 billion Horizon Europe funding scheme. However, the problem seems to be that the government wants to do this at a discount cost, despite not having to pay the fees it skipped since leaving the scheme in 2020.
The UK is arguing its case based on an estimate of how much EU funding would go to research in Britain, arguing that the figure warrants lower contributions.
Having recently had success in renegotiating the Northern Ireland Protocol (except when trying to get the DUP to back it), there has been optimism that under Rishi Sunak relations between the UK and the EU are being gradually reset.
However, the row over funding, dubbed by one EU official as “Margaret Thatcher style thinking” referencing the rebate to Britain’s overall contributions she won in the 1980s, may jeopardise this.
Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, told MPs on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee this month that Britain needs to rejoin the scheme, remarking: “If we don’t associate, I see us drifting off into the cold north-east Atlantic rather by ourselves.”
He said the ‘plan B’ of the proposed £14.6 billion Pioneer scheme to support research would not be an adequate replacement, declaring: “We will get very lonely and we will not actually have the influence in the world that is appropriate for a science superpower.”