One academic said he was “relieved” to be leaving the country and feared the UK would go down a “dark road” like Germany in the 1930s. One hundred and fifty grants were approved for British applicants after then-Brexit Secretary David Frost successfully negotiated linked membership of the £80bn Horizon Europe programme, but most will now be cancelled. The European Research Council (ERC) has informed grantees in the UK that if the linked participation had not been approved by 29 June, the grants would not be available unless the researchers transfer their work to a European institution. Ratification of membership is pending because the UK has not implemented the Brexit trade arrangements agreed under the Northern Ireland Protocol. As the deadline passed, it emerged that just 18 of the 150 academics will receive the scholarships, but they must move to an EU institution to receive the funds. Thiemo Fetzer, professor of economics at the University of Warwick, who was approved for €1.5 million in funding for research into media and geopolitics, confirmed he was one of 18 who had reluctantly decided to move to the EU. He said: “I am relieved as this whole Brexit process has eroded my confidence in UK institutions and this Horizon Europe union was just another embodiment of that. “I take comfort in knowing that with the ERC hosted in a great place in Europe, I am also developing an exit strategy from the UK, like many other EU academics I know. I really fear that the UK is going down a very dark path and there is a sense of 1930s Germany in everyone.’ An ERC spokesman said: “The preparation of 115 ERC grants offered to UK-based researchers will end now that the deadline of 29 June has passed. “The fellowships of 18 UK-based researchers will be transferred to a host institution in the EU or associated countries, following the researchers’ decisions to exercise their ‘portability’ right,” it said. Another 14 cases have yet to be resolved, it said. Last month, Nicholas Walton, an astrophysicist from the University of Cambridge who studies the Milky Way and hopes to play a major role in the European Space Agency’s (ESa) next major observing project, revealed that he had been forced to hand over his co-ordinating role to 2, 8 euros m pan-European research project of the Marie Curie Network to a colleague in the Netherlands. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the government “has guaranteed funding for eligible, successful applicants to Horizon Europe who are expected to sign grant agreements by December 2022 and who have not been able to sign grant agreements with the EU”. . Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST He said it was “disappointing” that the EU had delayed associated membership of Horizon Europe and expressed disappointment at the end of the grants, saying that “under the EU’s own guidance, UK entities should in theory be able to apply and participate in projects like we work for the association.” The government is threatening to pull out of Horizon Europe altogether and move to what is known as the plan B research program designed to compete with the EU programme. However, there are reports of disagreements between the science minister, George Freeman, and the Treasury over the funding and structure of the alternative scheme.
