CapX, 26 September, Professor Angus Dalgleish
Much jubilation has ensued following the Prime Minister’s announcement that the UK is rejoining the European Union Horizon science programme. Many of my colleagues are extremely relieved that they can at last apply for the fat grants which make careers and reputations for those lucky enough to get them.
Heads of large scientific organisations and institutes lobbied extremely hard for us to rejoin this programme – implying scientific disaster if we were left out in the cold. They claimed the fact that the UK scored more in grants than we contributed was evidence that membership was a necessity.
However, given that eight of the top ten research universities in Europe are in the UK, it would be very strange if we did not do well in such a competition.
Yet the fact that the UK does very badly from the infrastructure fund is always overlooked, presumably because it casts doubt on the merits of the positive ‘win’ on the peer reviewed grant aspects.
Horizon has numerous restrictions, like having to include collaborators from countries which would not normally be natural bedfellows if not for the Horizon structure. In being so Eurocentric it misses the opportunity to collaborate with long standing allies in non-EU countries such as the US, Asia and Japan. It should be remembered that Horizon has accepted non-EU countries for many years, including Israel and Switzerland.
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