The UK¡¯s association to Horizon Europe should not prevent it from introducing innovative ideas from its Pioneer back-up plan, sector leaders have argued.

While Rishi Sunak¡¯s decision to?sign off on?Britain¡¯s membership of?the European Union¡¯s flagship €95?billion (?84?billion) research scheme has been widely welcomed by?the UK¡¯s research community, elements of?the Pioneer scheme that would have replaced Horizon in?the event of?non-association could still be?adopted, scientists have insisted.

The UK¡¯s commitment to join Horizon might allow a reappraisal of Pioneer¡¯s ideas that was not possible when association hung in the balance, said Nick Plant, deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) at the University of Leeds.

¡°Universities have been lukewarm on Pioneer because we were clear that Horizon association was the best course¡­but Pioneer was really ambitious in many ways,¡± said Professor Plant. ¡°It would be a shame if we did not build on this work.¡±

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Pioneer¡¯s plans for Discovery research fellowships potentially worth ?10 million and lasting up to 10 years could, for instance, prove a powerful tool in attracting or retaining world-class talent, said Professor Plant.

¡°These fellowships would give researchers the freedom to be truly innovative and would give people time to deliver,¡± he said. ¡°If you want to attract the brightest and the best, you need these prestigious fellowships.¡±

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Parts of the 50-page blueprint for UK science post-Brexit could be funded by the billions of pounds allocated to Horizon for the past two years, which remain unspent. The saving amounted to ?1.6 billion in 2022-23, science minister George Freeman has previously suggested.

Mike Galsworthy, co-founder of Scientists for EU, said he believed Horizon association should not be a barrier to ¡°bringing forward complementary parts of Pioneer to expand UK science¡±.

¡°These things should not be either/or. We need to be doubling down on our strengths of science and higher education, ensuring that we are part of the big networks, then stretching our outreach even further,¡± said Dr Galsworthy.

Jolanta Edwards, director of strategy at London Higher, said Pioneer¡¯s prospectus ¡°contains a range of proposals which could play a supporting role to the Horizon programme¡±.

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¡°The awards and fellowships proposed are larger and longer than those available under Horizon Europe, and they would be a welcome addition to the research landscape,¡± said Ms Edwards, who noted that the ¡°general reduction in bureaucracy that the prospectus has proposed would also be a welcome move¡±.

¡°To leverage our strengths and become a science superpower, we need to harness all available resources to enable our researchers to thrive,¡± she added.

However, obtaining the additional funding for Pioneer¡¯s plans, which would have cost ?3?billion a year in its entirety ¨C was highly unlikely, warned John Womersley, a former executive chair of the Science and Technology Funding Council. ¡°I¡¯d be very surprised if any of those initiatives survive,¡± said Professor Womersley, now a visiting professor of physics at the University of Oxford.

¡°I¡¯d imagine there are still sceptics in the Treasury who aren¡¯t fully convinced that Horizon is a good deal, and since the science community made clear that this was their highest priority, I expect that there¡¯s an attitude of ¡®OK, well you got what you wanted but you¡¯d better not ask for anything else¡¯.¡±

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jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com