The government will extend the Horizon Europe guarantee scheme – which provides funding to researchers and innovators unable to receive their Horizon Europe funding – until the end of September 2023, according to a press release published by the Science, Innovation and Technology department on Thursday.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has issued grants worth over £1 billion since the scheme was initially launched in November 2021, according to the press release. It has also issued “over 2,000 grant offers worth £1.05 billion to the end of April 2023.”
“This extension offers certainty to our world-class researchers that they will receive the support they need to continue their ground-breaking work, building on the over £1 billion in support awarded so far, while negotiations over association to Horizon Europe remain ongoing,” said Science and Technology Secretary Chloe Smith.
Horizon Europe is a funding programme created by the EU for research and innovation and has a budget of €95.5 billion. The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges.
The UK government is currently discussing the UK’s involvement in EU research programmes and “hopes” that negotiations on Horizon Europe will be successful, “as that is our preference,” the press release added.
This announcement comes after, earlier this month, State Secretary Suella Braverman announced that students will only be allowed to bring family members to the UK if they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes in an effort to clamp down on migration.
According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, there were 679,970 international students in the UK in 2021-2022. Of those students, 120,140 came from the EU.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
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