UNITED KINGDOM

Brexit causes collapse in EU research funding for Oxbridge

New figures show that one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious universities has seen its funding from a large European research programme plummet from £62 million (US$75 million) a year to nothing since Brexit, writes Anna Fazackerley for The Guardian.

The latest statistics from the European Commission reveal that the University of Cambridge, which netted €483 million (US$516 million) over the seven years of the last European research funding programme, Horizon 2020, has not received any funding in the first two years of the new Horizon Europe programme. Meanwhile, the University of Oxford, which won €523 million from the earlier programme, has only been awarded €2 million to date from Horizon Europe.

Britain’s associate membership of the €95.5 billion Horizon Europe programme was agreed in principle as part of the Brexit trade deal negotiations in 2020, but ratification was disrupted after the UK failed to implement the Northern Ireland protocol. Such funding is vital to UK universities because it enables research collaborations with institutions across Europe and carries considerable international prestige.
Full report on The Guardian site