UK in Horizon 2020 during and aftere Brexit

Jo Johnson MP, UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, highlighted the importance of collaboration with European and international partners on major science, research and technology initiatives. He also reaffirmed the parameters of the UK Government’s underwrite of Horizon 2020 funding, in which the Government has committed to underwrite the funding for all successful bids for competitive EU funding made by UK participants that are submitted before the UK leaves the EU.

The underwrite guarantee was announced on the 13th August 2016 and in addition to it, a Q&A setting out the parameters of what is covered by this guarantee is available here. 

The main points are:

• The UK Government guarantees awards where the application is submitted before exit and is subsequently approved. This includes proposals which are informed of their success but, at the point of exit, have not signed a grant agreement, and proposals which have been submitted before exit and that are only informed of their success following exit.

• Two stage application processes are also included in the UK Government’s underwrite commitment, provided that the proposal for the first stage of the application is submitted before the UK leaves the EU and that the application is subsequently successful.

• The Q&A also states that the underwrite covers those schemes under Horizon 2020 which are administered in non-standard ways, including Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs), Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and ERANETs for example.