From plan B to Pioneer

Raking over the details of the UK’s Horizon Europe backup plan

On 6 April, we had first sight of the government’s plans for its alternative to the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, should the current discussions with Brussels fail to reach agreement about the UK’s association (or participation).

Since then, there’s been a fair amount of complaining about the endless limbo in which UK researchers find themselves—and an admission from a senior civil servant that the limbo is “damaging”—but still no sign of an end to it. The preferred outcome for everyone remains a deal with the EU, but what if that doesn’t happen? What are the government’s ‘go it alone’ plans like? And what do we still need to know about them? Here’s my take.