The UK and the European Union are ¡°breaking their promise¡± on continuing research collaboration post-Brexit and must stop using the issue as a ¡°bargaining chip¡± in wider ructions over the Northern Ireland protocol, university leaders said.

Continued delays over agreeing the UK¡¯s participation in the EU¡¯s Horizon Europe research programme, already under way, could strengthen the hand of those in Westminster who were ¡°never that enamoured¡± about joining, one UK sector figure also cautioned.

The EU¡¯s summary of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, struck with the UK last December, says it ¡°enables the UK¡¯s continued participation in a number of flagship EU programmes for the period 2021-27 (subject to a financial contribution by the UK to the EU budget), such as Horizon Europe¡±.

But there has been little progress in reaching an association deal since then, leading to fears that the issue had been dragged into the wider EU-UK stand-off over the Northern Ireland protocol ¨C with the EU unwilling to progress association until the protocol issue is resolved.

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Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for research, has appeared to make that link explicit, telling??recently: ¡°Association is a thematic subject, and I am confident that we are ready to tackle it as soon as possible, but transversal issues need to be tackled first.¡±

The delay has prompted concern among Dutch and German universities, two of Europe¡¯s leaders in research alongside the UK.

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¡°My call to the national and European politicians: act in respect of global interests instead of making research and innovation a bargaining chip,¡± said Pieter Duisenberg, president of the Association of the Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU).

¡°Our research partnerships with the UK are numerous and crucial. During the Brexit negotiations both EU and UK politicians made a promise to the research community on continued collaboration but they seem to be breaking this promise. This is incomprehensible and short-sighted in the light of the importance of global collaboration in research and innovation.¡±

Peter-Andr¨¦ Alt, president of?the?German Rectors¡¯ Conference (HRK), said that the EU and UK ¡°should urgently ratify the necessary framework agreements to lay the foundations for a fast and successful association¡±.

¡°The months-long deadlock generates unnecessary uncertainty in European science and jeopardises joint projects that would contribute to the benefit of the European continent and the world,¡± he said.

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Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International, said Ms Gabriel¡¯s comments confirmed that the ¡°delay in progress is political¡±.

¡°At least it makes it clear it¡¯s not that we [the UK] have gone off the idea¡­It¡¯s that the commission has chosen to make Horizon a bargaining chip,¡± Ms Stern said.

Responding to Ms Gabriel¡¯s comments, UK science minister George Freeman?tweeted that the UK¡¯s ¡°longstanding commitment [and] offer to stay in Horizon stands¡± but that if the commission decided the country could not join until the issue was settled the Westminster government had a ¡°Plan B¡±.

UUK¡¯s message to UK researchers was ¡°apply, apply, apply¡± for Horizon Europe funding, Ms Stern stressed.

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But she also warned: ¡°The longer this goes on the higher the risk that people in the UK government who were never that enamoured of association start getting the upper hand in the argument.

¡°Of course, there are conversations going on about [UK-based] alternatives. The longer this goes on and the more obviously it is linked to the Northern Ireland protocol, the more difficult it is to persuade people to be patient.¡±

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john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com