Speaking to Parliament's Science and Technology Committee late last week, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy minister George Freeman said the geopolitics of Anglo-European relations – in particular Anglo-French relations – around fishing and the Northern Ireland Protocol were complicating the decision over "association" with the European Commission's €95bn Horizon research programme.
"I think it's pretty clear that we're in a holding pattern, with our association not being granted," he told the committee.
In January 2021 the post-Brexit trade deal negotiated between Britain and the EU opened the door for the island nation to become an "associate" with Horizon Europe from outside the EU. It offered the possibility that UK scientists could apply for R&D funds from the multi-billion euro kitty. But that "association" decision is itself subject to negotiations.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Brexit deal the UK signed up to, but almost since formal departure from the EU it has been trying to renegotiate it. Cabinet Office minister and lead negotiator Lord Frost threw a spanner in the works when he resigned in December last year.
Now Northern Ireland's first minister — part of the region's devolved administration —
has resigned in protest over the trading arrangements. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is
leading negotiations.
Freeman told the committee his department has a plan B — a replacement system for Horizon — but he didn't know when it might be needed. In the meantime, Treasury funding might be trickled into the system.
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