British universities have made a last-ditch appeal to the European Commission to help save their membership of the Horizon Europe funding network, warning that the UK government is preparing to abandon the £80bn programme for joint research projects across Europe.
Representatives of Universities UK (UUK) said ministers were “at an advanced stage” of planning alternatives to membership of Horizon Europe and other EU science programmes, and requested an urgent meeting between vice-chancellors and Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president.
Prof Paul Boyle, the vice-chancellor of Swansea University, said in a letter to Šefčovič: “Many of our members have reported that their researchers have been forced to leave research consortia that are working on projects that would have a tangible positive impact on European and global prosperity, like improving climate data and addressing food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
