UK scientists are still waiting to get an answer about whether they’ll be able to regain access to Horizon Europe – the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation.
When this was cut off, as part of our departure from the EU, it was a huge loss to our scientific community, closing off opportunities for collaboration.
After the Windsor Framework, re-joining Horizon seemed possible again. This would be one small but important step in rebuilding relationships with Europe. But the Brexiter government has continued to stall, playing politics with the process and making it more difficult by the day for UK scientists.
Over 10,000 of you have already signed the European Movement’s open letter demanding that the Government put politics aside and reopen negotiations with our allies in Europe to re-join Horizon. But it’s more important now than ever that we continue to ramp up the pressure so that UK scientists don’t lose out on key Horizon funding later this year.
Will you add your name too? Sign the open letter to tell the Prime Minister we need to negotiate to re-join Horizon now.
The reality is that many scientific researchers have left the UK to go to other European countries. Frankly, we’re already experiencing a brain drain, damaging our standing as a world-class centre for innovation, research and scientific excellence.
In my constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon, I have lost count of the number of researchers I’ve spoken to who’ve been affected by the failure to take part in Horizon. Time is of the essence – with decisions needing to be made about the next academic year now, we need answers immediately.
We can’t afford to keep losing the best and the brightest. We need to re-join Horizon now.
Sign the European Movement’s open letter demanding we re-join Horizon now!
There are no negatives to re-joining Horizon.
Our European partners want us back on the scheme, it is the first step in rebuilding relationships and it will allow us to get our country back to one of world-class excellence in science and research.
So, let’s pile on the pressure – together we can start to unpick the damage done by the Government and fix our broken relationship with Europe.
Layla Moran MP
European Movement UK
http://www.europeanmovement.co.uk/
