{"id":75744,"date":"2025-05-05T06:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/75744\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T06:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:14:08","slug":"uk-wins-500m-in-science-grants-from-eu-horizon-scheme-after-brexit-lockout-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/75744\/","title":{"rendered":"UK wins \u00a3500m in science grants from EU Horizon scheme after Brexit lockout | Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

British scientists are \u201cover the moon\u201d to be back in the EU\u2019s flagship science research programme Horizon after a three-year Brexit<\/a> lockout, with new data revealing they have been awarded about \u00a3500m in grants since re-entry.<\/p>\n

As the EU secretly draws up strategies for the next seven-year funding cycle in 2027, the UK is hoping its success in the first 12 months since returning to Horizon will leave it in pole position with Germany and France to dominate European science, despite Brexit.<\/p>\n

With projects ranging from the research to develop brain catheters inspired by wasps to efforts to create aviation fuel from yeast and greenhouse gases, the UK has been catapulted to the top of the league of non-EU beneficiaries by number of grants. And, at fifth position behind Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and France, it looks set to resume its overall place in the coming 12 months.<\/p>\n

EU data shows nearly 3,000 grants were awarded to British science projects in 2024, the first year of the UK\u2019s post-Brexit associate membership after a three-year pause caused by a Brexit row over Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am absolutely over the moon that we are back in the programme formally,\u201d said Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena, a professor in medical robotics at Imperial College London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has recently completed a 15-year Horizon-backed research project inspired by a conversation he had with the renowned zoologist Julian Vincent about the wasp\u2019s wondrous ability to penetrate hard tree bark to lay eggs. Rodriguez decided to try to reinvent that for neurosurgery to create a minuscule cranial catheter<\/a> to penetrate the skull and deliver drugs or ablations to brain tumours.<\/p>\n

Taking stock after the first year back in the \u00a380bn Horizon programme Prof Sir John Aston, the pro-vice-chancellor for research at the University of Cambridge<\/a>, said he hoped the embargo \u201cnever happens again\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really good that we are back inside the tent,\u201d he said, adding that it showed the world the UK\u2019s commitment to being a \u201cscience superpower\u201d with world-class research. \u201cThis is really competitive funding, and [it shows] that people who get this funding are doing really impressive work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena (left) showed Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d (right) and Nick Thomas-Symonds (centre) a prototype of the cranial catheter. Photograph: Cabinet Office<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was among those to meet the European trade commissioner, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, on a visit to Imperial on Wednesday to underline the revived science collaboration with the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is delighted,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cEveryone is using that opportunity to start thinking with a European hat on about how to leverage these opportunities and reach out to colleagues in continental Europe and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

His \u20ac11m (\u00a39.4m) Eden2020 research<\/a> to develop the cranial catheter was driven by an \u20ac8m grant for a consortium led by Imperial but involving a hospital and two universities in Italy along with universities in Germany and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s isolation was a \u201cdouble whammy\u201d to science, Rodriguez said, because he had stopped applying for funding and also collaboration with European partners had weakened. While \u201cacademia is porous\u201d and the exchange of ideas had continued, there was \u201cnothing like joint funding to cement a relationship\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Prof Carsten Welsch, the head of accelerator science at the University of Liverpool<\/a>, was one of many who implored the government and the EU to allow the UK back into the Horizon programme. The pause cost him his leadership role in a prestigious Marie Curie network on novel plasma accelerators.<\/p>\n

Now, Welsch said, the UK was back in the game and a lead participant in the new \u20ac10m project to help optimise plasma accelerator-based compact research infrastructures. \u201cWe have gone from maintaining presence to driving progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The EU is developing its strategy for the next seven-year funding programme, FP10, which will start in 2027. \u201cIt\u2019s all very secretive but it is in full swing and it is important that we position ourselves positively,\u201d said Welsch.<\/p>\n

In 2024, 2,911 grants worth \u20ac574.7m were awarded to the UK, which had the highest number of beneficiaries of any of the 19 non-EU members in the programme and the third highest by value in just 12 months.<\/p>\n

The University of Oxford was the top beneficiary, receiving \u20ac42m, followed by Cambridge at \u20ac39.3m, and University College London and Imperial with about \u20ac28m. The Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh received more than \u20ac13m each while other organisations, such as the Royal Veterinary College, were awarded smaller grants of about \u20ac275,000. The Met Office received \u20ac1.22m.<\/p>\n

\"ComputerImperial College London\u2019s 15-year cranial catheter project promises to provide a means of precision delivery of drugs. Photograph: Imperial College Eden2020 research project<\/p>\n

Fresh calls for funding for space and industry open at the end of May with virtual and augmented reality calls later this year, something Rodriguez is \u201ceagerly\u201d waiting for.<\/p>\n

The freeze saw UK-based scientists \u201cbumped off\u201d projects altogether, said Dr Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, a bioengineer at Imperial, who is running eight active research programmes with EU grants.<\/p>\n

It would have been \u201ccatastrophic\u201d if the UK had not been allowed back into the programme, according to Ledesma-Amaro. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have been able to start new collaborations. It would have been bad for post-doctorate developments, for training and for the exchange of students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ledesma-Amaro\u2019s eight grants centre on sustainable food research, including one project titled the \u201csolar spoon\u201d: this uses energy from the sun to generate hydrogen, which can then be processed using bacteria to generate proteins that can be used for food, he explained. Another centres on delaying \u201cyeast death\u201d to develop biotechnological processes around fermented food, while another is aimed at creating aviation fuel from yeast.<\/p>\n

Over at Cambridge, Aston pointed to sustainable fuels research, led by Prof Erwin Reisner, aimed at converting solar energy and renewable electricity and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels and chemicals.<\/p>\n

Reisner met Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK\u2019s EU relations minister, last month to show the spread of Horizon projects at Cambridge, which also include research into iridescent plant colours and information theory in AI.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Horizon] really makes a difference, not just in the academic sense, but these are the technologies that are going to solve some of the world\u2019s big problems,\u201d Aston said.<\/p>\n

Cambridge is one of the UK\u2019s best-funded universities but, Aston said, being intertwined again with European universities and private research outfits was vital. \u201cWe are incredibly fortunate to be in a university where we have amazing expertise across the university, but we certainly don\u2019t have all expertise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British scientists are \u201cover the moon\u201d to be back in the EU\u2019s flagship science research programme Horizon after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-75744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114453758923000310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}