The UK’s two years of talks that finally resulted in association to Horizon Europe showed how easily research cooperation can become embroiled in domestic and international politics.
Someone who knows this only too well is Signe Ratso, an Estonian with decades of experience in international affairs, who leads all new association talks for the European Commission, handling the myriad complexities that can arise when a country looks to join the €95.5 billion (£83 billion) flagship research scheme.
When the UK does finally rejoin on 1 January 2024, its researchers will, for the first time, be able to lead Horizon projects with counterparts from New Zealand, who joined in July after their own prolonged talks with the EU.
Ms Ratso has also recently visited Japan and South Korea, which she said were respectively in the early and serious stages of negotiations to join Horizon themselves.
