EU Funding - it’s leave!
This is an extract from Geoffrey Brown of Euclid’s 26 June, 2016 response to the leave vote and its implications for those applying for EU Funding.
I will be upfront here – I think this will be a disaster for the UK across a range of areas – ranging from reinforcing a nationalist and isolationist tendency in the age of globalisation which will result in the UK being left behind by larger and more powerful trading blocs and countries, through to negative impacts on opportunities for European collaboration and funding. There is a huge question mark over the future of the UK, and it is not completely fanciful to say that the Leave result could lead to the breakup of the UK – both Scotland and NI voted to remain in the EU.
But I want to use this newsletter to provide a brief overview of the practical implications for those interested in developing partnerships and applications for EU funding.
Firstly, in theory, the UK will continue to be eligible to be able to lead, or be a partner in, applications for EU funding – whether for Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens and Creative Europe – and this will certainly continue until the end of the 2 year period that will be triggered when the UK government invokes Article 50 – which at the moment seems likely to be sometime in the autumn. It is possible that there could be agreement for the UK to be eligible until the final deadlines in 2019 for the current round of these programmes (the current funding round ends in 2020). The UK will also continue to distribute its share of the EU Structural & Investment Funds via DCLG & the LEPs in England, and the various designated agencies and partners in the devolved nations and regions of the UK.
Beyond 2019/2020, however, this is likely to all change, and will be based on which of the several options is the one chosen by the UK for its formal relationship with the EU. There are… a range of possible alternatives yet to be fully explored.
Please let me know if you’d like further details of Euclid’s work.