A new Horizon deal will protect the future of British science and AI capabilities
A new funding deal will help us use artificial intelligence algorithms, normally used to track exploding stars, to check for skin cancer, writes Michelle Donelan
Yesterday was a great day for science in the UK. Our association to Horizon represents a return to the world’s largest research programme, worth some £80bn over 7 years.
Association will deliver for the best and brightest British scientists, giving them the certainty they need to bid for critical projects with confidence. It will give us the ability to shape European collaboration in line with our own strategic priorities, too.
Association will also deliver for British businesses, enabling them to reap the benefits of research and development and creating thousands of jobs for British people in an innovative economy fit for the future.
Crucially, this is a deal which delivers for the taxpayer, too. We are a global player inside or outside Horizon, and the Prime Minister and I have been clear that we could not accept a deal at any price. That is why we secured a bespoke deal that will benefit each and every one of us.
This deal provides a clawback mechanism that will compensate us should our scientists receive significantly less money than we put into the programme. I can confirm, too, that British taxpayers will not be made to pay for the period that our researchers were excluded from the Programme.
However, that will not be the only benefit for the British people. Association to Horizon, a global endeavour that includes Norway, Israel and countries as far flung as New Zealand, will support our scientists to deliver curious, creative and bold research that makes our lives longer, happier, and healthier.
Just take Southampton, where scientists are using a Horizon grant to repurpose the AI algorithms normally used to track exploding stars to monitor the growth of moles on the skin. This vital research could help them to detect skin cancer earlier.
Those scientists in Southampton are not alone. In Imperial College, researchers are working with colleagues across the continent to develop a vaccine for HIV30 years in the making, saving hundreds of thousands of lives across the world.
Further North, universities from Manchester to Sheffield and Warwick are working with Imperial’s scientists to harness the potential of graphene – a technology born here in Britain – to transform hydrogen fuel cells. Thanks to international collaboration enabled by Horizon, the thinnest and the strongest material ever discovered is opening up opportunities for cleaner, greener transport in a rapidly warming world.
These three stories show the unique strength, rigour and openness of British science; qualities make us perfectly positioned to lead global research collaboration. They also show us how association to Horizon makes those qualities even stronger, delivering more of the research which makes a real difference to communities both in the UK and beyond our shores.
Returning to the Copernicus programme will allow the UK’s world leading earth observation sector to bid for contracts worth hundreds of millions, enabling it to grow and provide more of the data we need to understand climate change, helping us to tackle one of our greatest shared challenges together.
However, I am clear that yesterday’s announcement will not mark the end point of our ambitions. We will continue to strengthen our collaboration with countries beyond Europe, building on the success of the International Science Partnership Fund we launched earlier this year and working with the sector to make the absolute most out of our association to Horizon.
We have taken another, truly momentous, step in our mission to make Britain a science and tech superpower, and I am confident that our country is ready to seize the moment. Thanks to the historic deal we have secured, the Horizon is bright for British science, British business, and the British people.