101 UK Brexit Notes

Connemara Programme October 16 2018 pg. 109 Guarantee for competitive EU funds In a ‘no deal’ scenario, the UK will leave the EU budget in March 2019 meaning UK organisations would no longer receive future funding for projects under EU programmes, such as Euratom Research and Training, without further action. However, the Chancellor announced i n August a n d October 2016 that the government will guarantee EU projects agreed before we leave the EU, to provide more certainty for UK organisations over the course of EU exit. The guarantee covers the payment of awards where UK organisations successfully bid directly to the European Commission on a competitive basis while we remain in the EU. In July 2018, the Chief Secretary laid a written ministerial statement extending this guarantee to provide further stability for UK organisations in a ‘no deal’ scenario. The guarantee now includes the payment of awards under successful bids where UK organisations can participate as a third country in competitive grant programmes from exit day until the end of 2020. This means that in a ‘no deal’ scenario, at which point the UK will assume third country status, the government’s commitment will guarantee funding for eligible, successful bids until the end of 2020 for UK organisations who successfully bid directly to the EU for competitive grants under the Euratom Research and Training programme. For international partnerships International research partnerships will continue to be important in a ‘no deal’ scenario. The UK is on track to have bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreements in place with key priority partners ahead of March 2019. This will facilitate continued, unimpeded civil nuclear trade and nuclear research cooperation with these countries. The UK will no longer be a member of Fusion for Energy and UK businesses will not be able to bid for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor contracts through Fusion for Energy. However, in this scenario the UK government is willing to discuss with International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor opportunities for UK researchers, companies, and institutions, to collaborate on this critical experiment. UK researchers working in the UK on Euratom Research and Training programmes The guarantee and its extension provide UK stakeholders with reassurance that Euratom Research & Training projects covered by its terms will be funded for the lifetime of the project. The UK government intends to implement a similar process to that being used for Horizon 2020 to ensure beneficiaries of Euratom Research & Training grants can continue to receive payments unaffected, should the guarantee be required. Information on how this process will work can be found in the Horizon 2020 technical notice , and further information and guidance will be provided in due course. For awards where UK organisations successfully bid directly to the European Commission on a competitive basis, we will work with the Commission to ensure that UK organisations will be able to continue to participate. We are aware there may be cases where UK participants lead a consortium and are responsible for distributing funding to the other participants; the UK government is seeking to discuss how this could best be addressed in a no-deal scenario with the European Commission. These discussions would also need to include consideration of projects where the UK’s change in status from member state to third country could lead to concerns about ongoing compliance with Horizon 2020 rules (for example, where a consortium no longer meets the threshold for member state participants).