The European Union’s Framework Programmes have provided an enormous boost to science, research and innovation across Europe and the world.

As a group of UK research-intensive universities, securing association to Horizon Europe was a top priority. The Russell Group was delighted that the UK Government and European Commission were able to finalise association terms for the full duration of the programme. We greatly appreciate the efforts made on both sides to reach agreement and believe this represents the best outcome for UK and EU science.

The strength and value of ties between our universities and other European partners cannot be underestimated, and we hope they will grow, through Horizon Europe and successor programmes. The fact that the UK Government is already engaging with the shape of the next EU Framework Programme (FP10) is welcome.

The Russell Group has identified priorities for FP10 that we believe will build on the success of previous framework programmes, driving economic growth and maximising the benefits of R&D investment for EY member states and countries with association agreements. These include:

• Protecting and boosting the role of fundamental research within the programmes: around a third of proposals deemed ‘excellent’ by the European Research Council (ERC) are not able to be funded at present, while the Excellent Science (Pillar I) share of Horizon Europe’s budget is lower than that of Horizon 2020.
• People are central to research and FP10 should support and boost the role of MSCAs, increasing opportunities for individuals to develop successful research careers and enhance their networks, encouraging mobility between countries and between academia and industry.
• The Russell Group hopes to see more calls for lower technology readiness level (TRL), more innovative projects within the Global Challenges pillar (Pillar II), and approaches to impact within that pillar that take account of the longer-term impacts of such projects.