British scientists and academic researchers will be able to reapply to the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) for grants if, as expected, the UK rejoins the flagship Horizon European programme, it has been confirmed.
The re-entry comes almost a year after 115 grants approved for British candidates were terminated by the council because of the delay in ratifying the UK’s associate membership of the £85bn Horizon funding scheme.
The removal of the UK from the EU science community has enraged scientists.
A former president of the Royal Society told the Guardian that the debacle over Horizon Europe meant the UK had squandered the opportunity to become “the California of Europe”.
A spokesperson for the ERC said: “The UK is expected to become an associated country to the EU’s research and innovation framework programme Horizon Europe.
“The UK will therefore have the same rights and obligations as other countries associated to the programme, which includes the possibility for researchers based in the UK to obtain ERC grants.”
A briefing paper on the “expected” return of the UK to Horizon Europe has already been prepared by the EU, which also confirms that eligibility for ERC grants will follow.
An announcement is expected in the coming week, days after New Zealand is confirmed as an associate member of Horizon Europe by the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
The UK was locked out of Horizon and the linked programme for solo scientific endeavours in retaliation for failing to implement the Northern Ireland Brexit trading arrangements.
One scientist wholeft Britain to hold on to his grant said he felt the country was going down “a dark path”, isolated from the rest of European science.
Prof Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel laureate at the laboratory of molecular biology in Cambridge and former president of the Royal Society said: “California has about half the UK’s population, yet is doing extremely well in both science and technology.
“Part of the reason is that it has immediate access to the large population pool and a large single market that is the USA (and via Nafta to Canada and Mexico). We could have been the California of Europe but chose to indulge in an idiotic act of self-harm by leaving the EU.
“The Horizon programme participation is very welcome and allows at least UK science to participate on a larger stage. But it is merely a consolation to be able to preserve it.”
Another leading scientist said re-entry to the ERC would be a welcome development as it would give researchers the opportunity for a quick return to European funding.
The programme includes “starter” grants for individual researchers with two to seven years of experience since completion of a PhD alongside a host of other funds for experienced scientists including “proof of concept” and “consolidator” funds.
Athene Donald, the master of Churchill College Cambridge and professor of experimental physics said: “Although one might expect a smooth and rapid transition back to rejoining the ERC programme which involves single researchers, it will be harder to rebuild and rejoin the collaborations of other parts of Horizon.
“That is where the damage may take some years to be healed, possibly not until the next framework programme. The UK has been squeezed out of many such collaborations they would previously have been expected to be part of.
“During the past few years, the UK has lost many talented scientists (both UK and European nationals), specifically because of the inability to hold ERC funds in the UK.”
• This article was amended on 11 July 2023. An earlier version said that the European Research Council only provided funding for individual researchers with two to seven years of experience since completion of a PhD. In fact it offers a range of funding programmes.
