by Richard Lochhead

SCOTLAND’S future at the top table of international research and innovation is at serious risk.

That’s because, with just 11 weeks to the end of the Brexit transition period, there is still huge uncertainty hanging over some of the country’s most vital research collaborations and their funding, gained through being part of the EU’s flagship Research and Innovation (R&I) Programme, Horizon.

This nagging concern has left 1,000s of Scottish researchers and innovators in limbo, worrying over the future of many of their programmes, teams, organisations, and even their careers.

That might sound overly dramatic –but consider the amounts involved.

Scottish organisations have won €711 million of EU funding from Horizon 2020 since the current programme began in 2014, a higher proportion relative to population than any other part of the UK.

That’s roughly 10 per cent of all Scottish research spending in that time at universities alone – a sector supporting around 5,000 full-time jobs annually. Universities have benefited the most, but also NHS boards, research institutes, SMEs and others.

Yet even at the eleventh hour, our future involvement in the next iteration of this invaluable research funding source remains cloaked in doubt– because the UK Government is still negotiating whether projects across the UK will even be eligible for the successor programme, Horizon Europe, which will run from 2021 to 2027.

Westminster has also to release any clear details on possible UK alternative funding programmes, if these talks fail to deliver in time.

And all this doubt as UK ministers continue their increasingly hollow rhetoric about wanting the UK to be a “science superpower”.

Scotland has been centre stage in successive European R&I programmes for decades. Each has grown in size, prestige, influence and reach, with Horizon 2020 widely recognised as the best globally, after producing Nobel Prize-winners and ground-breaking new technologies, addressing global challenges including climate change and Covid-19, and assisting technology scale-up and commercialisation across all sectors. Horizon Europe has set bold missions (its so-called “moonshots”), such as 100 climate neutral cities by 2030, three million lives saved from cancer by 2030, and the restoration of European oceans and waters by 2030.

So it is quite-simply unthinkable, that Scotland’s research organisations and experts could be banished to its sidelines, unable to play what has until now been an integral part of this global research mainstay.

I want them to remain a full part of Horizon, as do those involved in the collaborations it has helped to create right across Scotland, rather than potentially becoming reliant on some sub-standard copy-domestic funding programme, hastily designed by the UK Government in the hope of seriously competing with Horizon Europe for the attention of international colleagues.

Last year’s “Scotland’s Science Landscape” report by the Scottish Science Advisory Council underlined how research collaboration with EU countries has delivered huge academic impact, with six of Scotland’s top-10 international collaborators based in the EU.

So far, however, the UK Government’s approach to continued participation in Horizon can be described at best, as unclear.

We had to wait until July for any public statement on the issue, and even then we heard only of UK ambition for planned “association” with the programme. Nor has it confirmed any definitive budget for UK participation in Horizon Europe or a domestic alternative.

As well as unmeasurable damage to the Scottish science community’s international links and reputation abroad, this UK Government stalling has already caused a decline in EU funding to our universities – even while we’re still a full Horizon partner.

If Scotland is ultimately excluded from full participation in Horizon Europe, inevitably we will experience a further slump in funding, and new collaborative opportunities. My demand of the UK Government remains resolute: ensure Scottish organisations can participate in Horizon Europe, with no loss of benefits compared with the current programme, at no additional cost.

EC estimates suggest for every euro or pound invested via Horizon, a country gains an 11-fold return to its economy. But this isn’t only about economic return or leveraging inward investment.

Strategic collaboration, mutual access to infrastructure and resource, and idea-sharing through Horizon Europe would also support Scottish progress on key societal issues such as green growth, digital inclusion, and improved health and wellbeing.

So it is ludicrous our world-class research organisations are still second-guessing, when they should be finalising funding plans, including on potentially diverting to other sources for support.

Meanwhile, their European counterparts can plan confidently for the next five years, free from the shackles of uncertainty the UK Government has placed on us.

I am certain Scottish universities, businesses and other key organisations will remain internationally focused and open to wide research collaboration, grounded as they are in strong cultural traditions of openness and friendship. They are well-placed to weather the impacts of the perfect storm of Brexit and Covid-19. But to maintain that strength they need clarity, action and certainly on their sources of funding.

Our European partners fully understand Scotland did not vote for Brexit and I‘m doing all I can to protect our valuable partnerships with them. No matter how hard the UK Government tries to detach us, Scotland is and will remain part of Europe.

Richard Lochhead is Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science.