On Tuesday 13 December 2022, Science and Technology Minister George Freeman announced phase one of a new global research fund, International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), at an event in Tokyo, Japan. This initial phase of the fund will be opened with £119m worth of funding to allow UK scientists and innovators to collaborate with peers around the world on some of the most pressing issues facing our planet.
Jamie Arrowsmith, Director, Universities UK International, said:
A major new analysis piece from UUKi and Studyportals urges the UK Government and universities to prioritise European student recruitment and makes recommendations for stabilising and regrowing student numbers in opportunity markets.
Access, participation and success in higher education are rarely considered as priorities when contemplating ways to support forced migrants that is refugees, asylum seekers and others in need of international protection. Yet, education, including higher education, is critical to supporting forced migrants establish themselves in a new country.
A new campaign asks European leaders to place science collaboration before politics, as the UK’s and Switzerland's participation in the EU's world-leading research and innovation programme Horizon Europe hangs in the balance.
With this Joint Statement, we – the undersigned European university umbrella organisations – want to express our concerns on the lack of progress and clarity regarding the association of the United Kingdom and Switzerland to the Horizon Europe research framework programme. Two years have passed since the start of the programme without any progress and the delay is causing damage to existing research partnerships between EU, UK, and Swiss knowledge institutions
As the major convening higher education associations in our respective countries, our organisations work together to support and promote international collaboration.
Following the agreement in principle reached by the UK and EU regarding the Windsor Framework, representatives of the UK, Irish and wider European research, innovation and business communities have signed a joint statement urging rapid progress on UK association to EU programmes, including Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom: