Crunch Time for UK Association to Horizon Europe

LERU members welcome that the EU and the UK have returned to the table to negotiate the UK’s association to Horizon Europe. The global challenges facing the world such as climate change, food security, health inequalities and economic resilience need our best researchers working together.

EU member states and the UK have developed deep-seated research and innovation partnerships over three decades of framework programmes and are aligned in their vision and values for science, translation and impact. Prior to this recent period of uncertainty the UK was a leading participant in the EU Framework Programmes, working with European partners on significant ground-breaking research and scientific thought leadership.

Global R&D heavyweights China and the US are continuing to increase their investment in R&D. The US recently proposed its largest-ever increase in non-defence R&D spending, and China’s R&D intensity has more than doubled since the turn of the century and is now targeting annual increases of 7% or more in each of the next five years. The substantial $350+billion investment by the USA in cleantech (through the Inflation Reduction Act) and China’s increase in defence spending will move these established science superpowers even further ahead because these investments will have positive knock-on benefits for R&D in other sectors. 

Together, our collective research and translation ecosystems can cement Horizon Europe’s status as the world’s biggest and most impactful scientific programme and set the direction in areas of strategic importance, such as AI, engineering biology and quantum technologies. We urge the EU and UK to find pragmatic solutions to the effects of the delay to the UK’s association to Horizon Europe.

Through our extensive networks across Europe and the UK, LERU members are determined to ensure Horizon Europe – with the UK as a key associate member – will be the most successful framework programme ever.