The University of Plymouth has welcomed the return of seamless access to a major European Union research and innovation programme.
The UK Government signed a new deal to associate to Horizon Europe, last week (7 September), so researchers can now apply for part of the €95.5 billion programme that runs until 2027.
"For all researchers the opportunity once again to benefit from European research funding, and to collaborate in large-scale programmes across the continent is great news. The University always performed well with European research funding, and we can do so again. Importantly, they engage with the global challenges where Plymouth researchers can have real impact."
The Horizon programme has accounted for around a fifth of the University of Plymouth’s research income in the past, but additional bureaucracy has made accessing the funding very challenging in recent years.
“The announced association with Horizon Europe is a very welcome move that removes barriers to full participation in this major international funding scheme. It will make processes more streamlined and seamless, opening opportunities for our academics to collaborate with European researchers to conduct research on major issues facing health, business and industry, environments, and societies - whatever stage of their careers they are at.
The University is particularly focused on how we can support early career academics, who might not have had recent experience competing for European funding, and we would welcome increased support from Government and other agencies to help with that.”
Among previous projects to benefit from Horizon funding was
LimnoPlast
, a €4.1million project examining the distribution of microplastics in European rivers and lakes.
Another was
Mission Atlantic
, an €11.5 million programme to map and assess the current and future risks posed across the Atlantic Ocean, which brought together more than 30 partners from both sides of the ocean, including the Marine Biological Association (MBA), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the University of Plymouth.
