Light on the Horizon

Breakthrough in EU-UK relations must spur action on R&D

Whisper it, but there may finally be some good news on the Horizon. This week’s deal in principle between the UK and EU over trade in Northern Ireland—dubbed the Windsor Framework—resolves the biggest negotiating hurdle to the UK joining the bloc’s R&D programme, Horizon Europe. So can the country’s researchers start dusting off the good china for their EU counterparts? Perhaps, but with caution.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen offered hope, saying that once the deal is implemented, work to secure the UK’s association to Horizon, and the nuclear and Earth observation programmes Euratom and Copernicus, can restart “immediately”.