The UK elections that took place last December brought no good news for all the individuals that were hopeful the UK would remain in the EU. With this outcome, it has been decided that the UK will leave the EU at the end of January 2020 and it will enter in a transition period ending in December 2020. During this one-year time-frame, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the EC President, Ursula von der Leyen, will have to negotiate a new trade relationship. The agreement struck between the EU and UK says that this transition period can be extended by up to two years if both sides agree, but a decision must be made before July 2020[1]. Many commentators have warned that the negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK are going to be difficult, especially taking into account the time-frame provided in the Withdrawal Agreement.

Brexit footprint on the European R&D

The earlier optimism that hoped that the EU would find its stability once the Brexit process was complete is being challenged. Now, it seems that the period that will follow will bring more uncertainties. Both sides, the UK and EU should strike a trade deal by the end of 2020, which most say it is an almost impossibly brief time to design a full agreement. According to Andre Geim, Nobel Prize winning physicist, Regius professor and Royal Society research professor at Manchester University, in order to prevent a disaster in the research area, the UK has shifted their populist approach and has adopted pragmatism for the post-Brexit negotiations. He also stated that he sees a slight hope in this regard, as the UK has already restored the student visa programme, cancelling the changes introduced by ex-prime minister Theresa May, which severely harmed universities and economy. “If things continue this way, it should be possible for the UK to stay in the European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Curie frameworks, two of the most valuable EU programmes and important for UK universities” [2] – Geim  pointed out. It is worth noting that UK is the biggest beneficiary of the ERC programme.

Participation in the Horizon Europe Programme

The UK government and the European Commission have both expressed interest in future cooperation on research and innovation. But such an agreement, which would include association to the EU’s research programmes, would be “unprecedented” due to the fact that every country that is associated to the ongoing Horizon 2020 has a pre-existing broader trade arrangement in place with the EU.[3]

Furthermore, Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said that the basic principles for UK entry into the EU’s next big research programme would be the same as for other non-EU countries and that there is no place for “cherry picking”.[4] The UK “will be considered as a third country” and the basic principles of its Horizon Europe membership would be the same as for Canada, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and other rich non-EU countries with which the Commission has raised the possibility of full partnership.

Nonetheless, under the terms of the Brexit transition, the UK remains eligible to participate fully in the Horizon 2020 programme, which finishes at the end of the year but there is no agreement as of yet for the next EU research programme.