Image: UK Research and Innovation
Funder says guaranteed funding is available to all UK winners from first Horizon Europe wave
The national research funder UK Research and Innovation has moved to reassure UK-based European Research Council grant winners seeking to leave the country amid uncertainty over access to their funding.
The intervention from the funder’s international champion, Christopher Smith (pictured), came after Research Professional News revealed that a number of ERC Starting Grant winners in the UK had already received lucrative offers to move abroad.
Ongoing political disputes have held up approval of the UK’s association to the €95.5 billion Horizon Europe R&D programme and, while it remains unsigned, UK-based researchers are ineligible to receive any funding they win.
The UK government has previously said it would provide funding for the first wave of Horizon Europe winners if association was not agreed by the date required to sign the project contracts and draw down the EU money.
However, UK winners have voiced concerns that such replacement funding—administered by UKRI—would have a lower reputational value to their research than the prestige attached to ERC funding, and that their links with European colleagues also risk being affected.
In a letter to Research Professional News, Smith said there was no reason for UK winners to move abroad and that UKRI funding would be available to winners even ahead of association to Horizon Europe being confirmed.
“Guaranteed funding is available through UKRI for everyone who has been successful in the first wave of calls,” he said. Smith added that guidance on the more detailed terms and scope of this guarantee, and how to access it, have been published on the funder’s website.
He said that he understood the concerns voiced by the interviewees and was “happy to reassure them that the guarantee will ensure that successful awardees receive full funding at their UK host institution to continue their planned work and continue to collaborate with their European networks”.
“I congratulate all the winners of these prestigious awards,” Smith wrote. “I look forward to seeing the important work they will do, here in the UK, which continues to be a world leader in research excellence and very much a country where young researchers are supported to make the most of their potential.”
Smith’s letter in full:
To the editor,
The UK’s high-quality research talent is always in demand from overseas institutions, but there is no need for researchers awarded European Research Council’s (ERC) Starting Grants to move abroad (“ERC winners explore plans to exit UK”). And it’s not correct to say (“Hitting home”) that funding will not be available until association to Horizon Europe is confirmed.
Guaranteed funding is available through UK Research and Innovation for everyone who has been successful in the first wave of calls. Guidance on the more detailed terms and scope of this guarantee, and how to access this is published and my team are ready to help with any queries via eugrantsfunding@ukri.org.
I understand the concerns raised by interviewees, and I am happy to reassure them that the guarantee will ensure that successful awardees receive full funding at their UK host institution to continue their planned work and continue to collaborate with their European networks.
I congratulate all the winners of these prestigious awards. I look forward to seeing the important work they will do, here in the UK, which continues to be a world leader in research excellence and very much a country where young researchers are supported to make the most of their potential.
Professor Christopher Smith, UK Research and Innovation’s international champion
A version of this article also appeared in Research Fortnight