Why Rishi’s EU Horizon deal is a lifesaver for my mate Matt

Why? Because Sunak’s deal gives scientists like my friend access to a fund that hands out millions for vital scientific and technological research. It’s a deal that boosts post-Brexit Britain, and the PM deserves praise for it, writes Chris Blackhurst

Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen met this week to confirm the deal (WPA Rota)

My pal, Matt Burkitt, has been handed a lifeline. As of nine o’clock this morning, he was busy filling out forms for a grant of up to £2m from the EU.

He’s applying for cash from the European Innovation Council Accelerator fund. It falls under the umbrella of the £85bn EU Horizon scheme to boost science research. The agreement, struck between Rishi Sunak and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, prompted him to dust off the paperwork.

Matt had been waiting for this moment. A scientist, turned entrepreneur, he runs Dimension Technologies, a start-up in Cambridge created three years ago that specialises in researching, implementing and commercialising new forecasting algorithms. The money will be used to expand his two-man firm – which he hopes to increase to 20 – so it can continue producing predictive algorithms for healthcare, insurance, supply chains and manufacturing. The firm is pre-income, so there is no revenue coming in at present.

“It’s an absolute lifesaver for us,” he said. “The difference between life and death.”

Without the prospect of EU funding, he was contemplating having to go, cap in hand, to US venture capitalists, who might back his technology but only in return for a sizeable chunk of ownership and influence over its future direction. The Americans were more likely to lend against his tech company than the British. This way we get to stay in Cambridge, which is good news for the UK and for Europe.”

Next, he wants to be able to hire from across Europe, taking his team to 12. Receiving support would be a precious first step.

Burkitt, not a natural Tory supporter, finds himself expressing thanks to Sunak. His mood is replicated up and down the land as UK scientists, researchers and innovators, are overjoyed that they can once again seek assistance from the Horizons programme. Until Brexit, the UK was one of the leading beneficiaries of the vast fund. Since then, nothing, as access was cut off.

Now, the more pragmatic, calculating prime minister has seen sense, when his predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, did not. They put ideology before reason, ignoring the pleas of the scientific community and alienated Britain’s former partners in the EU, damaging countless projects as a consequence.

An outlay of £2.6bn a year on average gets the UK into Horizons and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation satellite programme. So, a relatively small amount of taxpayer expenditure for a share in huge wealth and opportunity. Johnson and Sunak did not – could not – see it like that and Britain has been paying a heavy price.

Exclusion was the cost of the tit-for-tat row over the Northern Ireland Brexit trading arrangements. Lord Frost had negotiated associate membership, but that deal was never sealed in response to the ongoing Northern Ireland dispute.

The Windsor Framework, agreed in February 2023, reopened the door and a phone call on Wednesday between Sunak and von der Leyen finally secured readmission.

Of course, in the Brexiteer camp, the move has been greeted with suspicion, verging on anger. They fear this is the beginning of the end, that the UK is edging closer to the EU and that a reset in relations is underway. Certainly, the welcoming noises emerging from the president of the European Commission’s office, in which she spoke of the EU and the UK being “key strategic partners and allies” will not have assuaged their worries.

But we were cutting our nose off to spite our face. For the sake of making a point, we were starving our scientists, R&D and our economy, of vital assistance. It was not as if the grants were going to come from anywhere else – the UK Exchequer cannot afford to finance the myriad teams of scientists and researchers. There was an alternative, as Matt knew, which was to seek US money, but that would inevitably come with strings attached. Britain’s historic reputation for innovation – something that Johnson for one, always used to acclaim – was in danger of fast disappearing.

In some respects, Sunak is quietly getting on with it. After Northern Ireland and now this, he deserves credit. Yes, he is receiving tonnes of opprobrium for the unsafe concrete in schools debacle. Yes, he lacks charisma. Yes, he has not put an end to Tory infighting and this won’t help in that regard. But behind the scenes, he has been diligently pushing and negotiating, not indulging in histrionics and damaging Britain as a result.

Perhaps that’s what he is good at – the stuff that people don’t see. Among his Tory critics, he is viewed, disparagingly, as a chief operations officer and not as a flag-waving leader – a Johnson, driving from the front. One has put British science and innovation back on track, the other derailed it.

That’s the difference. Well done, Rishi. Even my friend Matt says so.