Britain is on course to abandon its efforts to join the European Union’s flagship research initiative “as early as June”, causing a “lose-lose for health, wealth and well-being” across both Europe and the UK, Universities UK (UUK) has warned.
In a letter to the European Commission, published on 1 June, Swansea University vice-chancellor Paul Boyle, who is UUK’s policy lead for research, says that the UK is “on the precipice” of walking away from Horizon Europe after 17 months of waiting for its membership to be confirmed.
The EU had indicated that it would not allow UK universities to join the pan-European research project until trade issues relating to Northern Ireland, which the UK wants to renegotiate, are settled.
