FST JOURNAL
Horizon Europe
The debate
Following the formal presentations, the speakers joined a panel to respond to questions from the audience on topics including: rekindling existing networks; support for younger researchers; other funding sources; and industry’s part in the programme.
While there may have been a small dip in the number of UK applications for European grants, that can be remedied fairly quickly. It is important both for UK academics to understand the opportunities now realisable through Horizon and for European colleagues to once again seek to engage UK partners in their projects. The networks did not disappear during UK absence from the programme and they provide the framework to re-establish those collaborations. The research sector did a very good job of keeping the flames of collaboration and engagement alive.
There is no doubt that the delay in association has meant that there is a group of younger researchers coming through who have not had the ability to be fully engaged in these kinds of joint projects. This has been compounded by Brexit and by Covid. For them it may take a few years to catch up on the experience of their more established colleagues.
The European grant structure focusses on commercial purpose, while in the UK the focus is much more on research purpose. Perhaps we have something to learn from Europe.
There are more excellent research proposals than there is available funding, even under Horizon. Yet there has been an underspend in the UK during our absence. Perhaps some of that underspend could be re-directed to some of these otherwise unfunded, but high quality, proposals.
Grants are not the only source of funding for research and innovation and it is important to take additional resources into account when formulating project proposals.
It is critical that we protect the research base, because this is what allows the UK to be excellent in Europe: we should not divert funding from that.
There is a broader problem about investment and capital investment in deep tech in the UK. The Government is currently looking at that including ways of creating better Government-enabled accelerators.
People in this country think that Horizon is an academic programme. But it is actually more than that: it is academic but also industrial and it is about innovation too. So all those sectors should be involved in it. In other countries there is not such a hard division between academia and industry – in Switzerland, nearly three-quarters of graduates go into industry. Here, we also need to be clear about ongoing support for innovation, through procurement and through regulation.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Joint statement by UK Government and European Commission
UK Association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus