Post-Brexit EU funding secured

These funding commitments made by the chancellor are part of a package of post-Brexit guarantees on projects currently funded by the EU, including agricultural funding and structural and investment funds. Agricultural funding, currently provided by the EU, will also continue until 2020. In an announcement, the UK Treasury stated that it would continue to underwrite the payments of awards to universities and institutions such as the Horizon 2020 research programme, even when the projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.

The announcement will come as a relief to UK academics that have, since the Brexit, faced EU funding worries: a growing number of UK researchers have said their applications for EU research funds have been thrown into doubt since the referendum result in June. In addition, consortium partners on the continent had expressed worries on whether UK participation could harm their project’s chance of success due to its impending departure from the EU. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has said the guarantee should address these concerns by British researchers and their European partners.

In a statement, Hammond said that the government is “determined to ensure that people have stability and certainty in the period leading up to our departure from the EU”. He added that it would assess whether to fund projects signed after the Autumn Statement and prior to the UK’s exit from the EU. The Autumn Statement is typically due in November or December each year.

Horizon 2020 is providing nearly €80bn in funding from 2014 – 2020. BEIS said that UK stakeholders have secured about €2bn from Horizon 2020 so far, about 16% of the total funds allocated to date. 

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