UK won’t have to pay full Horizon association fee, EC says

The United Kingdom will not be required to pay into Horizon Europe for the two years that it was not associated to the programme, the European Commission has confirmed, as researchers hang on for a deal on post-Brexit cooperation in the €95.5 billion (US$104 billion) research programme, writes Florin Zubascu for Science|Business.

A European Commission spokesperson said the European Union has already told the UK government that it “would not be required to contribute for the period it wasn’t associated to the programme, that is, 2021-2022”. But the UK government insists that it will pull out of talks if the terms of association are not in the UK’s interest.

With Mariya Gabriel, the EU research and innovation commissioner, welcoming UK State Secretary for Science and Technology Michelle Donelan in Brussels on 4 April, the UK government said Donelan was set to demand that further talks on Horizon Europe “reflect the lasting impact of two years of delays to the UK’s association”.
Full report on the Science|Business site