UK-based scientists and institutions will have access to the £85bn fund from today.
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "With a wealth of expertise and experience to bring to the global stage, we have delivered a deal that enables UK scientists to confidently take part in the world’s largest research collaboration programme.

    Chief Executive of Universities UK, Vivienne Stern, told the BBC there would be a “unanimous sigh of colossal relief” from scientists which would allow them to work across geographical borders by drawing funding from a common pot.

    The UK’s association to Horizon was agreed in principle as part of the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), but the issue then became bogged down in the dispute about the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    UK scientists were always the big winners in the grant process for past Horizon programmes, jostling for top spot and sometimes outcompeting the other European science superpower - Germany.

    Sue Ferns, from Prospect, the union representing many workers in the research sector, said: "The UK rejoining Horizon is welcome but long overdue and we are now playing catch-up as we try to make up for lost time.

    The Copernicus association keeps UK scientists at the forefront of climate research, and permits Britain’s aerospace industry to bid for satellite contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros.

    The original article contains 1,019 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • tal@kbin.social
    2·
    11 months ago

    Instead the UK will institute its own programme focussing on nuclear fusion - the science of trying to extract energy by forcing together light atomic nuclei.

    It will involve international collaborations. After all, the UK still hosts Europe’s leading fusion lab - the Joint European Torus (Jet) in Oxfordshire.

    The alternative programme will be backed by £650m up to 2027, the UK government says.

    Hmm.

    It’s not clear to me if the UK is still in ITER, then.

    EDIT: Nothing on the UKAEA site that I can find explaining, either.

    The ITER WP page saying that the UK participates references an old page from 2021 saying that ITER had suspended new contracts with the UK but was honoring old ones and that the governments hoped to work things out at some point.