The Government has announced that it will invest £250 million to remain part of the important Horizon Europe fund.
The commitment of millions of pounds will help pay for the UK’s association with Horizon Europe, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation.
A statement from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said: “This investment reinforces the Government’s commitment to putting research and development at the heart of plans to build back better from the pandemic.
“It will support vital and pioneering research while enabling the UK’s brilliant scientists, researchers and businesses to access and benefit from the world’s largest collaborative research programme, Horizon Europe – worth about €95 billion (£80 billion) over the next decade.”
As part of the EU trade deal, the UK retained participation in the Horizon Europe programme, but there were fears from some involved in research and development (R&D), that the UK would not contribute to the cost of taking part and would instead seek to fund it from existing research budgets.
UK businesses have been reassured by the investment. Welcoming the additional funding, Prof Julia Buckingham, president of Universities UK, which represents university leaders, said: “We are very pleased that the Government has averted threats to UK science and research by allocating additional funding to support the UK’s association to Horizon Europe and welcome their commitment to increase investment in R&D to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027.
“Given current pressures on public finances, this is a significant affirmation of the Government’s belief in research, recognising the pivotal role it plays in the UK’s current and future prosperity, and ensuring UK universities will remain at the forefront of efforts to address the most pressing global challenges.”
Horizon Europe funding is mainly used to support publicly funded R&D projects, including many of the leading studies in UK academia. It is part of a wider network of R&D funding options open to UK organisations and their business partners.
This works alongside schemes, like the R&D tax credit system, to ensure that innovators have access to the money needed to develop some of the world’s leading technologies and ideas.
At Made.Simplr, we support a wide range of businesses and accountancy firms with R&D tax credit claims through our own innovative cloud-based claims system.
This integrates with platforms like Xero to allow for the automation of R&D claims; making the process easier, quicker and more cost-effective. To find out more about Made.Simplr, please arrange a demo with our team today.
