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The UK government has unveiled a £14.6bn seven-year research and innovation programme called Pioneer, which will take effect if talks to rejoin the EU’s €95.5bn Horizon Europe programme break down.
Michelle Donelan, science and technology secretary, launched the initiative — formerly known as Plan B — on Thursday with a 48-page prospectus. It combines a sweeping blend of proposals to fund more R&D within the UK, enhance the country’s research infrastructure, develop new international collaborations and train more scientists and engineers.
“We are engaging with the EU over Horizon Europe and I got the ball rolling this week with a meeting with commissioner Mariya Gabriel in Brussels,” Donelan said. “We hope our negotiations will be successful and that is our preference, but it must be on the right terms.”
She said Pioneer would receive the same funding — £14.6bn — as the UK would have paid the EU for associate membership of Horizon between 2021 and 2027, as envisaged in the Brexit deal signed at the end of 2020.
In the event, the EU blocked British membership until the Windsor framework covering trade arrangements for Northern Ireland was agreed in February.
London and Brussels are now negotiating the financial terms for the UK to rejoin a research programme to which it belonged in full before Brexit.
Any accord would have to take account of the fact that the UK will have missed out on the first three years of the current Horizon scheme after Brexit and may not be able to play a full part in its remaining four years.
Scientific leaders gave Pioneer a cautious welcome as a back-up plan but emphasised their strong preference for associating with Horizon, which would reinforce existing partnerships with European researchers.
Sarah Main, executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, a lobby group, said the prospectus could be seen partly as a negotiating tool with Brussels over re-entry terms.
“It has been a joy to see the signs of warmth and progress on Horizon Europe negotiations in the last week after a year of stalemate,” she said.
“It is sensible for the government to prepare alternatives and I’m pleased to see the emphasis on developing these with the R&D community, but let the alternatives not get in the way of the progress towards the goal of a full and co-operative research relationship between the UK and EU.”
The government said it would flesh out details of Pioneer in consultation with UK scientists and engineers in universities and industry, in case it is needed.
Officials in the science department expect about one-third of the programme’s £14.6bn funding to be devoted to international collaborations, including bilateral and global partnerships. Even without Horizon membership, UK researchers could pay to take part in some EU projects on a “third party” basis.
Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, said that if talks with the EU proved successful, parts of the Pioneer prospectus could be rolled out alongside Horizon membership.
“Strengthening our links with Europe and beyond through Horizon can sit alongside a rollout of elements of the government’s alternative plans, giving the UK the best opportunity to cement our status as a science superpower,” he said.
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