MSCA RESERVE LIST 2021

[Nik_86]

I also attach this which may be of interest to the group: https://researchbriefings.files.parliam ... P-9333.pdf
this briefing provides an update on the NIP discussion, actually confirming what we have read so far

"On 17 May 2022 Liz Truss announced that the Government will “in the coming weeks” introduce legislation unilaterally to change the Protocol."

"The EU responded by saying that if the UK “move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the Protocol” then they will “need to respond with all measures at its disposal”.

[trina_80]

I also attach this which may be of interest to the group: https://researchbriefings.files.parliam ... P-9333.pdf
this briefing provides an update on the NIP discussion, actually confirming what we have read so far

"On 17 May 2022 Liz Truss announced that the Government will “in the coming weeks” introduce legislation unilaterally to change the Protocol."

"The EU responded by saying that if the UK “move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the Protocol” then they will “need to respond with all measures at its disposal”.

Hey, Nik! Thanks for sharing that!

Also, this just came out: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 95575.html

"The UK will abandon attempts to remain part of the £80bn Horizon Europe science programme if last-gasp talks this week fail, a minister is warning.

George Freeman said “time is running out” to rescue participation and argued the government will have “no choice” but to launch its own scheme without a quickfire breakthrough.

[...] Mr Freeman is heading to Brussels on Wednesday, warning the plug will be pulled unless “a last round of talks” succeed. “The continued blocking of the UK from the flagship European research programmes that we negotiated to remain in is deeply problematic. We can’t let UK researchers be sidelined,” he said.

The UK would “remain active research partners”, but Mr Freeman added: “We will have no choice but to launch a bold, global alternative to Horizon.”

And this is Freeman's twitter thread on this: https://twitter.com/GeorgeFreemanMP/sta ... 8442620933 So let's see what happens tomorrow...

[Kevin90]

The UKRI informed me that only those who get a GAP invitation from Horizon Europe would be eligible for UKRI's guarantee scheme. It is their subtle way of saying that UK based projects in the reserve list will only be considered for the guarantee if and only if they receive an invitation. So people like me who are in the reserve list with UK hosts are unsure what will happen after 14th June if UK does not associate. Will our projects be deemed ineligible?? It's like a no man's land kind of situation.

Hi pjwmx,

UKRI offers to fund the candidates who were granted the global fellowship this year:

Global Fellowships
This type of MSCA fellowship lasts between 2 to 3 years, of which the first 1 to 2 years will be spent in a non-associated Third Country, followed by a mandatory return phase of 1 year to an organisation based in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
As well as PFs hosted entirely in the UK, the UK Horizon Europe guarantee covers MSCA Global Fellowships that have a return phase at a UK institution in the original MSCA proposal.

https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads ... -Final.pdf

I don’t know if the candidates from the reserve list are being invited to apply to UKRI guarantee program at this point…

Good luck!

I am also on the reserve list with a UK host. No positive news for us so far. The UK NCP told me they can't even check the ranking of the list.

[trina_80]

I also attach this which may be of interest to the group: https://researchbriefings.files.parliam ... P-9333.pdf
this briefing provides an update on the NIP discussion, actually confirming what we have read so far

"On 17 May 2022 Liz Truss announced that the Government will “in the coming weeks” introduce legislation unilaterally to change the Protocol."

"The EU responded by saying that if the UK “move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the Protocol” then they will “need to respond with all measures at its disposal”.

Hey, Nik! Thanks for sharing that!

Also, this just came out: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 95575.html

"The UK will abandon attempts to remain part of the £80bn Horizon Europe science programme if last-gasp talks this week fail, a minister is warning.

George Freeman said “time is running out” to rescue participation and argued the government will have “no choice” but to launch its own scheme without a quickfire breakthrough.

[...] Mr Freeman is heading to Brussels on Wednesday, warning the plug will be pulled unless “a last round of talks” succeed. “The continued blocking of the UK from the flagship European research programmes that we negotiated to remain in is deeply problematic. We can’t let UK researchers be sidelined,” he said.

The UK would “remain active research partners”, but Mr Freeman added: “We will have no choice but to launch a bold, global alternative to Horizon.”

And this is Freeman's twitter thread on this: https://twitter.com/GeorgeFreemanMP/sta ... 8442620933 So let's see what happens tomorrow...

To put things a bit into perspective and to better understand Freeman's approach and what to expect from tomorrow's talks, I was just reading elsewhere that he recently said (on BBC Radio Four’s World at One) that UK actually doesn't get much out of this deal anyway:

“There are three parts of Horizon programme. One is the fellowships, which are very highly regarded and popular. The second is an industry funding pillar, and the third, is innovation. We actually don’t get very much out of the second two.”

[gigi-7]

Hello guys,

There are two interesting webinars about the UK partecipation in Horizon Europe on the 22nd and 27th of June:
https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest ... on-updates

That said, I really hope we can receive some news about our projects earlier than that

[trina_80]

Hello guys,

There are two interesting webinars about the UK partecipation in Horizon Europe on the 22nd and 27th of June:
https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest ... on-updates

That said, I really hope we can receive some news about our projects earlier than that

Hey, gigi!

Thanks for sharing that. I also got an email notification about these webinars and I thought the exact same thing: oh, man, I hope we won't need them!
I'm keeping an eye on what happens today with Freeman's visit to Brussels and what he called "the last round of talks."

[trina_80]

'morning, guys! In case you were wondering what happened yesterday (with the "last round of negotiations"), there's that: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ne ... zon-europe

"The UK’s science minister was told the day before a crunch visit to Brussels that he would be unable to meet a top European Union representative to make the case for continuing association to Horizon Europe, according to an official. [...]

Times Higher Education understands that a month-old request for Mr Freeman to meet with leading European Commission officials was declined the day before the trip, leaving him to deliver his arguments to an audience at the UK ambassador’s residence.

The office of research commissioner Mariya Gabriel had declined the request to meet back in mid-May, but executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who oversees competition issues, left it until the last minute to turn it down, according to a UK official."

On a different note, yesterday, June 8, was the deadline by which UK holders of ERC grant offers could have changed hosts. If you start hearing of people on the reserve list getting contacted, do share, please. It may be give us some indication of what will happen in our case.

Update: it seems that these notifications were sent yesterday to UK holders of ERC grant offers: https://twitter.com/ThurstonLab/status/ ... 3720318978

[emancipatedcity]

'morning, guys! In case you were wondering what happened yesterday (with the "last round of negotiations"), there's that: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ne ... zon-europe

"The UK’s science minister was told the day before a crunch visit to Brussels that he would be unable to meet a top European Union representative to make the case for continuing association to Horizon Europe, according to an official. [...]

Times Higher Education understands that a month-old request for Mr Freeman to meet with leading European Commission officials was declined the day before the trip, leaving him to deliver his arguments to an audience at the UK ambassador’s residence.

The office of research commissioner Mariya Gabriel had declined the request to meet back in mid-May, but executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who oversees competition issues, left it until the last minute to turn it down, according to a UK official."

On a different note, yesterday, June 8, was the deadline by which UK holders of ERC grant offers could have changed hosts. If you start hearing of people on the reserve list getting contacted, do share, please. It may be give us some indication of what will happen in our case.

Update: it seems that these notifications were sent yesterday to UK holders of ERC grant offers: https://twitter.com/ThurstonLab/status/ ... 3720318978

Thanks for sharing this, Trina! So far, I've seen two tweets by ERC applicants with UK hosts who opted for the UKRI funding.

1) https://twitter.com/ReiseSousaLab/statu ... 4752437255
2) https://twitter.com/drmelchannon/status ... 1589926913

[trina_80]

'morning, guys! In case you were wondering what happened yesterday (with the "last round of negotiations"), there's that: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ne ... zon-europe

"The UK’s science minister was told the day before a crunch visit to Brussels that he would be unable to meet a top European Union representative to make the case for continuing association to Horizon Europe, according to an official. [...]

Times Higher Education understands that a month-old request for Mr Freeman to meet with leading European Commission officials was declined the day before the trip, leaving him to deliver his arguments to an audience at the UK ambassador’s residence.

The office of research commissioner Mariya Gabriel had declined the request to meet back in mid-May, but executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who oversees competition issues, left it until the last minute to turn it down, according to a UK official."

On a different note, yesterday, June 8, was the deadline by which UK holders of ERC grant offers could have changed hosts. If you start hearing of people on the reserve list getting contacted, do share, please. It may be give us some indication of what will happen in our case.

Update: it seems that these notifications were sent yesterday to UK holders of ERC grant offers: https://twitter.com/ThurstonLab/status/ ... 3720318978

Thanks for sharing this, Trina! So far, I've seen two tweets by ERC applicants with UK hosts who opted for the UKRI funding.

1) https://twitter.com/ReiseSousaLab/statu ... 4752437255
2) https://twitter.com/drmelchannon/status ... 1589926913

Thanks for sharing these as well! Now I guess we just have to wait for someone announcing that their ERC project has been picked up from the reserve list...

[trina_80]

Hey again, guys! Here is some more detailed news on what happened yesterday: https://sciencebusiness.net/news/uk-wil ... ter-summer

“I’m not here to tell you tonight that we’re walking away, quite the opposite,” said Freeman. But the UK is not willing to wait much longer. “If the phone doesn’t ring in autumn, we’ll have to go.” [...] “I have to have a solution for researchers in the UK,” said Freeman. “We have to have a solution this summer. If not I’ll have to give them an alternative.”

On the other side,

One member state science representative in Brussels acknowledged that a failure to associate the UK would be a “lose-lose” for both sides. But, speaking on condition of anonymity, they said member states were fully behind the Commission’s policy of tying Horizon association to resolution of the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol.