One of the more obscure (at least as far as the general public is concerned) areas of worry resulting from Brexit was British participation in Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Programme for Innovation and Research, which invested significant sums into European research and development programmes, linking researchers across the Union for that purpose. The transitional period appeared to allow British participation until its end, even if Conservative politicians seem determined to put that in doubt.

Now, the European Commission are proposing a new version, Horizon Europe, intended to take the programme forward in the 2021-27 period, and their concept is being scrutinised by the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The rapporteur for the Committee is Dan Nica, a Romanaian MEP, and his proposals may be of concern to British scientists.

In summary, he writes;

Your Rapporteur believes that there has to be more clarity around international partnerships and associations and that the principle of reciprocity should be consistently applied. He considers reciprocal access and mutual benefits in all association and cooperation agreements with third countries, including agreements signed by funding bodies entrusted for direct management of the programme, as essential elements for successful partnerships.

What that means is that he has amended part of the Commission’s draft proposal as follows (additional language in bold);

(25) The Programme should promote and integrate cooperation with third countries and international organisations and initiatives based on common Union’s interest, reciprocity and mutual benefits and global commitments to implement the UN SDGs. International cooperation should aim to strengthen the Union’s excellence in research and innovation excellence, attractiveness and economic and industrial competitiveness, to tackle global societal challenges, as embodied in the UN SDGs, and to support the Union’s external policies. An approach of general opening for reciprocal international participation and targeted international cooperation actions should be followed, including through appropriate eligibility criteria, considering different levels of R&I capacities, for funding of entities established in low to middle income countries need to be applied. At the same time, association of third countries to the Programme should could be promoted where relevant and where reciprocity is guaranteed for the access of EU entities access to similar funding programmes of the third country.

In other words, further conditions are to be applied if a third country, say the British, wanted to take part.

It’s another potential blow for our universities and for our science and technology sector generally, and something perhaps that our spokespersons might wish to raise.