As confirmed in last week’s update of UKRI’s guidance on the Horizon Guarantee, the Euratom Research and Training Programme’s 2023 call (HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01) is also covered by the Guarantee – although Euratom is formally not part of Horizon Europe – and funding may be accessed through the Innovation Funding Service.
UKRO can now confirm that, in contrast to the usual advice for applicants expecting to obtain funding from the Horizon Guarantee, UK applicants planning to submit bids to any of the 11 topics of Euratom call “HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01” must do so as Associated Partners, not as beneficiaries.
This is in line with the Commission’s advice available here:
“Under call HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01, are entities established in the UK eligible to participate as beneficiaries or affiliated entities?
No. The UK has decided not to pursue its association to the Euratom Research and Training Programme 2021-2025. Therefore, UK entities (as any other entity from non-associated third countries) cannot participate as beneficiaries (with or without funding) or as affiliated entities. They can implement action tasks in their own name only as associated partners without funding.”
The specific conditions relating to accessing UK Guarantee funding for the
Euratom 2023 call are listed in the UKRI guidance document. UKRO understands that the guidance will be updated with the latest advice for UK applicants as soon as possible.
UK’s status in the Euratom programme
The UK decided not to associate to Euratom and an alternative domestic nuclear research and development scheme will be implemented instead, as announced last month.
As explained, in this UKRO article, the UK is considered a non-associated third country in all EU programmes other than Horizon Europe and Copernicus. This includes Erasmus+, Euratom, Digital Europe, the Single Market Programme, LIFE, Creative Europe, EU4Health, the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme, the Justice Programme, the European Defence Fund and many others. The full list of EU funding programmes is available here.
Therefore, the default status for UK organisations applying to calls under these programmes is that of an Associated Partner (without EU funding), not a beneficiary (as is the case in Horizon Europe).
Horizon Europe calls and Guarantee funding
As a reminder for subscribers, when applying to the remaining Horizon Europe calls (not Euratom) from the 2023 Work Programme, UK organisations must still apply for funding from the EU as beneficiaries and not as Associated Partners in order to be eligible for the Guarantee. The change to Associated Partner status must only be made after the project has been assessed, at the point of preparing the EU grant agreement.