Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse has hit out at the UK government’s decision to publish a detailed draft of its “Plan B” alternative to Horizon Europe, saying Brussels will dismiss the move as a negotiating tactic designed to lower the cost of joining Europe’s flagship research scheme.
Sir Paul, who is director of the Francis Crick Institute, Europe’s largest biomedical campus, told MPs on the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee that the publication of a 50-page prospectus for the newly-named Pioneer programme – dubbed a “bold, ambitious alternative” to full participation in Horizon Europe – was unlikely to be taken seriously by the European Commission, which is currently in talks about admitting Britain to its £90 billion research initiative.
Instead, the blueprint for a stand-alone British alternative to Horizon, which would run until 2028 and get about £14.8 billion in funding currently earmarked for Horizon, would be regarded as “posturing” with the aim of influencing ongoing negotiations over association, which are believed to have stalled over disagreements on the cost of the UK’s membership.
“They will not take it seriously at all – they will view it as posturing,” said Sir Paul, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001.
