Horizon Europe

Question

14:37:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the United Kingdom’s membership of Horizon Europe since rejoining the programme in September 2023.

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. I warmly welcome my distinguished noble friend to the Dispatch Box for his first Parliamentary Question.

We have early indications that UK applications have increased in 2024 following Horizon Europe association in January. Making the association a success is our priority, but we recognise that it will take time to recover to the participation levels that we enjoyed in Horizon 2020. We are working with businesses and academia to address the barriers to entry and to support greater participation in the programme.

My Lords, I hope the House will welcome the Minister’s reply, because it shows that we are moving in the right direction. I also welcome the letter sent by the Secretary of State last week to the Science and Technology Select Committee, of which I am a member, which outlined the Government’s negotiating stance in respect of framework programme 10 —Horizon’s successor. Do the Government hope to associate themselves with work on computing and space, with which we have not so far been associated? Finally, can the Minister, as I hope he will, give the House some encouragement that his department and the Home Office will have discussions to ensure that the visa system and its costs are designed in such a way as to maximise the chances of getting the best and brightest scientists to come to do their research here in Britain? That would be good for science and good for Britain.

I praise my noble friend Lord Stansgate for his persistence and effectiveness in bringing the matter of European science funding to this House. He will have seen that, on 26 September, we published a position paper on FP10, laying out that we would like to explore greater association with that programme and to be part of trying to shape it, provided that it delivers excellence, is relevant and delivers value for money for both the taxpayer and researchers. Visas are under constant review by the Home Office. What is encouraging is that the visa costs, for both the fast-track visas and others, can be covered by Horizon Europe funding.

My Lords, it was reported in the press about a year ago that a substantial sum of money allocated to the research budget in relation to our association with Horizon had subsequently been withdrawn by the Government. Can the Minister tell us whether those reports were correct, and, if so, what the sum of money was?

Any underspend on Horizon in the last year has been fully kept within the department.

My Lords, following the answer on visas, I think we all know that it is harder now for scientists to come in, and to bring their families, to work in the United Kingdom. We also know that Horizon projects have to be multinational, or have the most success by being multinational. Anecdotally, we hear that progress being made on Horizon is difficult and slow. How much of that slow progress does the Minister attribute to visa issues? In his conversations with the Home Office, what is the ask of that department to speed those visas up?

There are, of course, a number of visa programmes—it is a points-based system—including the global talent visa and the skilled worker visa. We know that the number of applications for the global talent visa increased by about 16% between 2023 and 2024, so that we had 8,000 or so in 2024. It is important that the costs of those, including the immigration health surcharge, can be put on to the grants. The noble Lord is absolutely right that it is also important that it is as easy as possible to get these things done. We rely, and always have relied, in this country on immigration of talented scientists and exchange of people, and I hope that that will continue and be as easy as possible.

My Lords, rejoining Horizon was a no-brainer. Will the Government reassess their position on Erasmus, a student mobility scheme that polls suggest has very wide public backing?

I am very glad indeed that the noble Lord thinks it was a no-brainer; that was not always the situation when trying to get that through. Erasmus, of course, was an important scheme that it was not possible to reach an agreement on. Consequently, it is important that universities can attract the best people through other means. The Turing scheme that was put in place in 2021 provides an opportunity for exchange; in the last round, the number of applications was up from 520 in 2022 to 619 in 2023, and more than 40,000 pupils and students were able to do exchange programmes, 60% of whom came from a disadvantaged background. The proposal at the moment is to continue with that scheme.

My Lords, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my registered interests. The Minister indicated that we have got off to a good start in 2024, but that is particularly in terms of applications for European Research Council funding. The start has been less promising for Horizon pillar 2 funding, which requires collaboration between businesses and academia. What action do His Majesty’s Government propose to take to ensure that those kinds of relationships can once again be established and that we have a more successful approach to achieving that funding?

The noble Lord is quite right that the numbers are looking more promising for 2024, particularly in the European Research Council mono-beneficiary schemes. In the collaborative and industry schemes, things still look fairly flat, although there are some examples of very good progress. In the European rail project, 61% in the most recent round had a UK participant and five out of the seven successful bids had UK participants, so there is some progress. We are doing a number of things: there is an increased communications campaign, the last one having led to a substantial increase of 64,000 hits on the UK Horizon website; there are roadshows, most recently in Birmingham and Glasgow and soon in Northern Ireland and Wales; there are pump priming grants, which have led to an ability to get money to work out how to make applications to Horizon programmes—I am pleased to say that of those people who received those grants and put in applications, 100% were eligible. Finally, European network programmes are being set up to link UK academic teams and industry to European teams in the most successful countries.

I also welcome the Minister to answering his first Question—I know what it feels like. Following on from the last question, obviously we want to maximise participation and I am pleased to hear that the roadshow that we introduced is continuing to be rolled out. Are there particular sectors that we need to focus on in the outreach? I hear that the SME sector is particularly underrepresented.

I thank the noble Lord for his question. He is right that the SME sector is underrepresented, and there is a specific effort to increase its ability to engage and to raise awareness within it. We hope that will be a major part of the European networking programme as well.

My Lords, can the noble Lord give us an estimate of the damage done to our research and development programmes through our absence from the Horizon scheme over the past few years?

There is absolutely no doubt that quite significant damage was done. That the participation rate dropped so dramatically, from 16% of all grants coming to the UK in 2015 to 6.5% in 2022, shows the scale of the damage. At the moment, it is not possible to work that out in terms of patents or publications, partly because those indicators are so lagging, but we will look at that and I fully expect to see some change.

My Lords, is the Minister confident that the UK’s association with Horizon and its successor programme can be dealt with as a one-off or does this have to be wrapped up in a broader reconsideration of our relations with the European Union?

Now that we are back in Horizon Europe and FP10, we will be looking to engage in that fully and shape it. In answer to an earlier question, I hope that that will include areas from which we are currently excluded. That will all depend on the backdrop of our relationship with Europe; you will see that it is warmer now and therefore we have had encouraging noises. I am due to meet Manuel Heitor, who is chair of the expert group on Horizon and FP10, to discuss how we can fully engage.

My Lords, it is good to hear the Minister, whom I welcome, say that the Government will engage in the Horizon 10 programme and its future form. Important also is that, when we were not members of Horizon, we collaborated with the Swiss research foundations. Will the Government assist in a negotiation to engage with Switzerland and the EU Horizon programme to readmit and collaborate with Switzerland?

Obviously, it is up to the Swiss to determine their association, but I will travel shortly to Switzerland to meet Science Ministers there. I will discuss our memorandum of understanding and how we can further engage in collaborations with Swiss scientists, which we see as incredibly important for the UK science base.