The future of Britain’s world-renowned science sector – and its ability to lead global research into Covid-19 – risks being fatally undermined if the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade deal by the end of this year. The warning has been issued by leading scientists – including UK-based Nobel prize winners – as fears grow that British science could lose access to the EU’s €100bn (£85bn) research funding scheme, Horizon Europe, which will run from 2021 to 2027. The government says it is “considering” applying to be an “associate member” (a relationship available for non-member states at the discretion of the 27 member nations) of Horizon Europe and the European Research Council (ERC), which is a component of the funding scheme. The ERC says one of its UK-based “grantees”, Prof Cecilia Mascolo, is already working in this country on rolling out a mobile app to quickly diagnose Covid-19. But with the EU-UK talks on a trade deal stalled, and Boris Johnson saying he will not seek an extension to the UK transition (which ends on 31 December) or pay extra budget contributions to prolong UK involvement, there are fears that a deal on British membership of the science funding schemes could be impossible to strike. Last week, the UK science minister, Amanda Sollaway, tweeted about how well home-based scientists had done from the European scheme. “Congratulations to all those who have been successful in the Horizon 2020 Proof of Concept awards,” she wrote. “UK applicants were awarded the largest number of grants – 13 awards! I wish all the winners success in exploring and developing their ideas further.”
Since the start of the current EU scheme, Horizon 2020 (which will be succeeded by Horizon Europe), the UK has received more than £1.5bn in ERC income and £776m in MSCA (Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions) grants – more than any other EU country, and a fifth of the total. But Sir Andre Geim, a Nobel prize-winning scientist based at Manchester University, said it was “difficult to remain optimistic” about the future of UK science. “The coronavirus will surely make a huge dent in our economy with inevitable negative consequences for the science budget. If the virus does not suffocate the UK fundamental research, a no-deal Brexit will surely be the coup de grâce,” he said. Another distinguished scientist, Professor Bart De Strooper, director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, said he was deeply frustrated. “Frankly, I think that it is a small disaster for UK research becoming deprived from this funding stream. I hardly see how we will catch up from a UK perspective and I think that already serious damage has been caused,” he said. “Under other circumstances we would have attracted many ERC grants to my new institute, but this strategy has been aborted by the uncertainty and the lack of guidance by consecutive UK governments over the last three years. We were extremely early in diagnosis of Covid-19 … and in testing and understanding the impact of Covid on our frail patients. “I feel very frustrated that we will not be able to tap the European funds to grow this institute even further. We could have become the biggest dementia initiative in Europe.”
Sir Paul Nurse, another Nobel winner and head of the Francis Crick Institute – the UK’s leading medical and biological research centre – said: “My view is that it would be very good for British science to have associate membership with the EU Horizon scheme. However, I am not sure that this will be a priority for the government’s negotiations concerning EU exit.” Richard Catlow, the Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society and a chemistry professor at University College London, said: “Continued association with Europe is the best option for UK science, and there is a consensus among the scientific community that it should continue. If the UK wants to continue benefiting it will have to keep contributing, as clearly it is not going to get something for nothing.” A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The UK is a science superpower, and we are increasing public investment in R&D to £22bn by 2024-25 – the largest and fastest increase on record. “The UK is considering participation in EU programmes where they represent a real benefit to British people and industry and provide convincing value for money. This includes Horizon Europe, and negotiations are ongoing on the potential terms of UK participation.” UK involvement in several EU agencies and funding projects including Horizon is a key part of the EU-UK trade deal negotiations. The UK has until the end of June to ask for an extension to the transition period to smooth its exit from the EU. But Johnson has insisted he will not ask for an extension that would involve paying a post-Brexit contribution into the EU budget.