EU/UK ‘trade and cooperation agreement’ creates path for UK to keep a close science relationship with Brussels, but the terms on which the UK joins Horizon Europe are yet to be agreed - and Erasmus student exchange ends.

UK researchers will be allowed to participate in EU research programmes post-Brexit, according to the terms of the breakthrough EU-UK trade deal announced on Christmas Eve.  

The accord, if turned into law, will establish tariff and quota free trade between the two sides in goods, and cooperation in areas including science, climate change, nuclear and fusion research, security and transport.

The deal is a boost to researchers, who were anxious and angry at the huge Brexit disruption of the last four and a half years.

The announcement, which followed a full year of difficult and often bad-tempered talks, clears the way for the UK to take part in the EU’s 2021 – 2027 €95.5 billion research programme, Horizon Europe, though the terms remain to be negotiated.

“It means certainty for our scientists,” the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday announcing the deal.  They will “be able to continue to work together on great collective projects,” he said. “Although we want the UK to be a science superpower, we also want to be a collaborative science superpower.”

UK-based researchers will be hoping this means top-tier “associate country” status in Horizon Europe, the level Switzerland, Norway and 14 other non-EU countries enjoy for the current scheme, Horizon 2020, and which guarantees many of the same rights as EU members.

However, UK participation in the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange programme will end, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator confirmed, saying this is a source of disappointment for him.

The loss of access to Erasmus was described as, “a sad betrayal of our youth, their opportunities and ambitions,” by Scientists for EU, a UK research lobby group. Johnson said the government would announce a replacement programme, to be called the ‘Turing scheme’, without providing further details.

The UK will continue to have a role in four other EU programmes, namely the Euratom nuclear research programme, the ITER project to build the world’s first functioning nuclear fusion system, the earth monitoring project Copernicus, and EU satellite surveillance and tracking services. In the absence of defence cooperation, the UK will not have access to Galileo encrypted military data.  

But the UK will be outside a host of other EU programmes, including the massive regional development and agriculture schemes. The country will also be excluded from “sensitive, high-security projects or contracts”, Brussels confirmed.

The agreement came too late for the European Parliament to vote on it before the transition period ends on 31 December. To allow time for that and other formalities, the deal will apply on a provisional basis until 28 February, meaning the UK will not crash out. The text also has to pass the scrutiny of member states.