Rupture to renewal: rebuilding UK-EU science collaboration 10 years on
A decade on from the UK’s vote to leave the EU, research collaboration with European partners is starting to recover. The politics has changed, but cooperation on science is more important than ever. Now we need to build on that progress – and keep major research programmes open and attractive to global partners.
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After years of disruption and uncertainty, UK and European researchers are working together more and more. The latest data on the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe – the world’s biggest multilateral research funding platform – now shows a strong upward trend, after a sharp decline following the 2016 Brexit referendum.
International collaboration matters because today’s biggest research questions are global. Breakthroughs depend on people working together across borders – no country can have the impact we need by acting alone. Programmes like Horizon Europe make this possible at scale.
Now we need to turn this recovery into long-term renewal and strengthen global scientific collaboration in a changing world.
The long road back to Horizon
Given the importance of collaboration for health research, Wellcome invested significant effort in pressing for the UK to join Horizon Europe in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. Alongside many partners across the sector, we made the case that science is strongest when it is international – and that both the UK and EU benefit from continued cooperation.
Back in June 2016, I was working for the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Overnight, Brexit became the issue that would dominate my working life for many years. A raft of parliamentary inquiries began, asking what Brexit would mean for science, with hundreds of organisations expressing their concerns.
When I joined Wellcome in 2019, this work was still ramping up. Anxiety about the implications of a ‘no deal’ Brexit was growing. But when we learned that negotiations on the future UK-EU relationship would now include discussion of the UK’s membership of Horizon Europe, there was renewed hope. Wellcome lobbied hard to make the case for the UK and EU to reach agreement. We even role-played our own negotiation process to explore the dynamics, and used this to advise the real negotiators.
Lasting success was finally found in 2024, when the UK officially joined the programme – now alongside many other countries far beyond Europe, including Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. Australia is now in the process of joining too. Horizon is becoming a truly global programme – despite the name – which is excellent news for science collaboration.
A new political context
UK-EU politics now looks very different to ten years ago. The forthcoming UK-EU summit in July has been announced as a ‘reset’ in post-Brexit relations, and the government has promised to “put Britain at the heart of Europe”. UK involvement in Horizon Europe is increasing, and the sector is working to help make the most of the UK’s associate membership – which means UK researchers can lead these collaborations once again.
But not everything in the world is so rosy. The global context has changed, with war in Europe and strained relationships with the USA. Horizon Europe was built on the idea of being ‘open to the world’, but that idea is now under pressure. The current political backdrop means that the next programme, due to start in 2028, could become more inward-looking through the current design process. Some see collaboration and European “competitiveness” as opposites, but in science the reverse is true. Europe’s competitiveness depends on its openness – on attracting talent, sharing knowledge, and working with partners around the world. It means better evidence, faster discoveries and stronger responses to shared health threats.
Looking beyond the horizon
That’s why we continue to focus on this at Wellcome. The planned successor to Horizon Europe (known by fellow policy nerds as Framework Programme 10, for the time being) is currently being negotiated in the EU. Discussions here will play a critical role in shaping how countries work together on science, right up to 2034.
Wellcome is pressing for three things from Framework Programme 10.
First, it should remain open and attractive to global partners. We want to make sure that the UK joins again in 2028, and that other countries that see the value of working together also renew their membership. But the global scale of Framework Programme 10 depends on the programme being designed with this in mind. That can’t be taken for granted.
Second, it should support low and middle-income countries to participate in the programme. Many of the world’s biggest health challenges – from infectious disease to climate change – will be felt most sharply there. The programme needs to bring in the widest range of talent, knowledge and local context.
Third, it should make it easier for different funders to work together. Philanthropies such as Wellcome can play a stronger role alongside public funding, helping support ambitious research by bringing additional investment.
But Horizon is not the whole story – there are also opportunities to deepen UK-EU cooperation beyond funding programmes. For example, the UK’s investment in a new Health Data Research Service – designed to unlock the potential of linked health data at scale – creates a platform for international collaboration on data-driven research. Linking these efforts with European initiatives – and exploring how systems can work together – could accelerate discovery and deliver tangible benefits for patients.
We need to keep this momentum going. The data shows that UK researchers are once again highly competitive in prestigious individual grants, and involvement in collaborative projects is increasing – but the trajectory needs to be sustained. Through our support for Universities UK International, we have helped rebuild relationships with European partners, including delegations, networking, and practical support. We’re now exploring supporting a second phase of this important work.
Investing in an uncertain future
So what might UK–EU scientific collaboration look like in 2036?
The honest answer is that we do not know. The past decade has shown how political contexts can shift, and how fragile confidence can be.
But science is always a long-term investment in the future, even when that future is uncertain. Now we must make sure that collaboration – across borders, disciplines and sectors – stays at the heart of that investment.
If we get this right – and make sure that what comes after Horizon Europe stays global and attractive to countries around the world – then international collaboration could be stronger than ever in the next decade.
Ten years on from the referendum, the lesson is clear. When we keep science open, we all benefit.
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