'Partners from UK still welcome to participate in EU proposals', says EC

21 Feb 2020

Photonics21 reports that, post Brexit, UK partners can still join Horizon 2020 projects "at least until the end of this year".

Partners from the United Kingdom are still welcome to participate in proposals for open EU calls, states European platform Photonics 21, in an announcement made this week.

The statement continues, "As there is currently much uncertainty about whether partners from the UK are still able to participate in EU projects [we] talked to our European Commission contacts in order to shed some light into this topic.

"We are pleased to say that our partners from the UK are still able to join consortia. This applies to all Horizon 2020 projects at least till the end of this year."

But Photonics21 is not certain about how this situation could change for projects funded in Horizon Europe, the collaboration and funding program that will succeed Horizon 2020, from next year: "That is currently not foreseeable. To answer this we have to await the outcome of the negotiations between EU and the UK leaders, which we hope will be clear by the end of this year."

European Commission comment

On the EC website the information pertaining to UK participation in joint research and development projects (Funding and Tenders) will continuously be updated, adds Photonics21.

The EC website currently states: "General notice for UK applicants: In conformity with the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement (Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community), the UK and persons or entities established in the UK continue to be eligible to receive Union funds under actions carried out in direct, indirect or shared management, which implement Union programmes and activities committed under the MFF 2014-2020 until the closure of those Union programmes and activities."

"Restrictions may, however, apply for security-related reasons or concerning financial instruments. When such restrictions apply, these will be clearly specified in the call for proposals."