The UK has rejoined Horizon Europe, but the delays have been costly

‘A burst of joy’, ‘wholeheartedly welcome’, ‘tremendous news’. These are just some of the unusually ebullient reactions from the scientific community following the news that the UK will be rejoining the EU’s science programmes. The relief is palpable as every major society, institute and research organisation rushes to make its views clear: this is brilliant for UK science.

The deal will mean that scientists in the UK can once again participate in Horizon Europe and the Copernicus Earth monitoring programme after being shut out for two-and-a-half years. While the details are yet to be released in full, those that secured the deal revolved around money. A key condition is that UK taxpayers won’t have to foot the bill for Horizon Europe when the UK wasn’t associated. This part of the deal was on the table six months ago though, shortly after the Windsor Framework was agreed to resolve a trade dispute between the UK and EU. What’s new is the ‘automatic clawback’. This is meant to compensate the UK if its scientists receive ‘significantly less’ funding than the country puts in. What this phrase means exactly is unclear, but it seems unlikely that the UK will invoke that clause while its scientists are still in joint fourth place with Italy in terms of successful European Research Council (ERC) grant applications this year.