UK And Switzerland Push For Horizon Access
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Major education groups, including Universities UK International, EPFL, ETH Zurich, and others, have called for an ‘open and collaborative research and innovation landscape’, as the UK’s participation in the Horizon Europe programme hangs in the balance.
The ‘Stick to Science’ initiative is urging for collaboration in science to take priority before politics, to create a research and innovation (R&I) landscape that is free from political barriers.
It comes as the participation of non-EU members UK and Switzerland in the Horizon Europe R&I looks uncertain. City AM reports that the UK is drawing up plans to spend £6 billion over the next three years on a new science fund, should the EU continue to block entry to the European research programme.
Initially, the EU had agreed to let the UK join the seven-year €95 billion (£80.4bn) programme post-Brexit, but then blocked entry following rows over Northern Ireland.
In a Stick to Science launch press conference, the president of the ETH Board, Michael Hengartner, said: “In a sense, therefore, this is a call to all political leaders in Switzerland, in the UK and Brussels, in all EU member states. Please help us work better together. Please make sure that science can act as a bridge.”
Ludovic Thilly, the chair of the executive board at Coimbra Group, an association that represents over 40 universities across Europe stressed that scientific cooperation cannot be “held hostage to bilateral politics”.
He said that a decade of cooperation with British and Swiss partners could be jeopardised, and a time when global challenges have never needed so much international cooperation.
According to The Pie News, it has been estimated that allowing the UK and Switzerland entry to Horizon Europe will add another €18 billion to the programme.
Vivienne Stern, the director of UUKi, said that the UK feels like it is running out of time to finalise an association with Horizon Europe.
“Throughout the Brexit process we, and colleagues from all over Europe, argued that it was in our common interest to be part of this programme,” she said.
The Stick to Science campaign takes the form of an online petition that requests the European Council, Parliament, Commission, and EU member states recognise that ‘advancement in R&I is best achieved when all actors in science and innovation work together across geographic boundaries’.
The petition urged the EU to rapidly reach association agreements so that the UK and Switzerland can begin to contribute scientifically and financially.
Paul Boyle from Universities UK said that it would be a great disadvantage to the other European countries and they will be unable to collaborate in the same way, meaning significant financial costs.
“The UK and Switzerland obviously contribute quite a lot into the Central Court and that will be reduced, which means they will be less science being conducted under these programmes,” he explained.
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