Ministers should start the transition stage of the UK¡¯s ¡°Plan B¡± alternative to Horizon Europe immediately even while the country¡¯s association to Europe¡¯s flagship research initiative remains in the balance, a leading policy expert has said.

Graeme Reid, chair of science and research policy at UCL, was in 2019 to devise, alongside Royal Society president Sir Adrian Smith, a potential post-Brexit replacement for Horizon Europe if UK membership was not possible He said he welcomed the? of Plan B¡¯s details but was concerned by a lack of information in key areas, especially?the failure to say when?measures intended to ¡°protect and stabilise the sector¡± will kick in.

Professor Reid, who was worried that UK research was already suffering a ¡°massive¡± loss of income and expertise as the deadlock dragged on, said that without the injection of funds from Plan B¡¯s ¡°talent and research stabilisation fund¡±, which would provide formula-driven funding to institutions ¡°most affected¡± by the loss of Horizon Europe cash, many world-class research teams may already have been disbanded by the time Plan B¡¯s other measures are introduced.

¡°I¡¯m surprised this stabilisation funding hasn¡¯t already come into effect,¡± said Professor Reid, who?added that a decision on the start date for this interim funding had been ¡°kicked down the road¡± since October when the Treasury announced that ?2.5 billion would be available for the two years between 2021 and 2023 to cover Horizon membership or a domestic alternative.

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There are ¡°still no criteria for switching to Plan B, or any sense of what might trigger that switch ¨C the passage of time, or a further attempt at negotiation?¡± said Professor Reid on the latest proposals.

¡°Without this stabilisation funding, there is a risk that the UK¡¯s scientific capability starts to erode and when you introduce the other funding streams, there is nothing for them to fund,¡± he added.

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¡°I understand the nervousness about spending money on Plan B while Horizon Europe remains a possibility but how long can you keep wishing for association?¡± he continued, noting that both Conservative leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were committed to rewriting rules on post-Brexit trade?with Northern Ireland?that have prevented the UK¡¯s entry into Horizon Europe so far.

It was also unclear who might run Plan B¡¯s various strands, including taking over the evaluation of UK research applications once?they are not being assessed by Europe, or the running of talent schemes?similar to the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie fellowships, said Professor Reid.

Carsten Welsch, head of the Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool, said?such schemes would be ¡°important to attract the very best talent to the UK¡± but it ¡°would be a significant challenge to put in place evaluation processes and identify suitable experts to process interdisciplinary applications in a bottom-up competition only in the UK¡±.

¡°There may very well not be a critical mass to replicate what EU processes have done so successfully,¡± he told Times Higher Education. Funding for the innovation-focused schemes in Plan B could instead be allocated to similar projects run by Innovate UK, Professor Welsch suggested.

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On replacement funding, he added that ¡°it isn¡¯t quite clear how the allocation to institutions would ensure that the funding would reach the researchers behind those EU projects¡±.

¡°If this could be ensured then it could effectively help bridge the gap and uncertainties that researchers currently find in collaborations,¡± he said.

However, Angus Kirkland, professor of materials at the University of Oxford, said he was ¡°reassured¡± by the Plan B road map, which showed a ¡°pragmatic approach to releasing funds if we do not associate¡±.

¡°It is good that both bilateral and multilateral collaborators are mentioned as these are a strength of the Horizon programmes,¡± he said.

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¡°What is still of concern, although there is nothing that can be done [by the UK] is how our European partners will view us as a third party, albeit with a funding guarantee,¡± said Professor Kirkland. ?

¡°Will we still be fully involved alongside our EU colleagues or increasingly marginalised?¡± he wondered.

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jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com