Image: European Union
Dismayed universities and businesses urge Australian government to restart negotiations
The Australian government decided against the country associating to the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme about a year ago, Research Professional News can reveal. It informed the European Commission, but neither side made the decision public.
Research and business groups have expressed dismay at the move and have called on the government to reconsider. A joint letter sent in October to industry minister Ed Husic by the Group of Eight research-intensive universities, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Industry Group and the European Australian Business Council warned that Australia was about to miss out on “arguably the world’s most significant research and innovation funding programme”.
Research Professional News has established that in mid-2023, Australian government officials wrote to the Commission to say that Australia would not proceed further with association talks that had been underway since 2021. The government’s reason is believed to be the potential cost of contributions to funded projects, but it has not publicly confirmed the move.
Horizon Europe has a budget of €93.5 billion, or around A$150bn. As with previous EU R&I programmes, non-EU countries can associate to it so that their researchers can win funding from it and lead collaborative projects, in exchange for a budget contribution.
This is the first programme for which association has been opened up to industrialised countries outside the European geographical region. New Zealand, which began talks at about the same time as Australia, became the first such nation to gain association and has already started to receive funding.
Diplomatic consequences
Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson told Research Professional News that the four groups had written to Husic because they still hoped the international talks could be restarted.
She said that changes in Australian research policy, including the Aukus defence agreement with the UK and the US and increased concern about national security issues, meant Australia should be pursuing research partnerships with “value-aligned, like-minded” nations.
Husic is understood not to have responded as yet, and his office did not respond to questions from Research Professional News.
Thomson said the groups had told Husic that participating in Horizon would bring benefits well beyond funding, such as “partnerships with world leaders on major challenges, access to leading scientists and business opportunities”. They were concerned at the diplomatic consequences of ending the talks given that the Commission had been “very keen” to include Australia in the programme.
Thomson, who is also deputy chair of the European Australian Business Council, is currently in Europe for talks with the Commission on other issues of trade, and she said she would continue to raise the question of association with Horizon.
‘Missed opportunity’
The full letter has not been released, but a Group of Eight submission to the government on free trade in October said that “Australia is very close to missing the opportunity to engage with Europe as a third-country associate to Horizon Europe”.
It said the four bodies had written to Husic urging “the government [to] reconsider the case for an association to Horizon Europe”.
Australian Academy of Science president Chennupati Jagadish said that “it would be a missed opportunity for Australia not to join Horizon Europe”.
A Commission official confirmed to Research Professional News that the EU institution received and acknowledged the letter from the Australian government. They added that the EU “remains fully available to continuing the discussion at the appropriate time".
Australia is “a key partner" on R&I, they said, with a meeting in April providing “an opportunity for both sides to highlight shared values and exchange on current collaborative actions and future interests in R&I cooperation”.
Over the past 30 years, more than 900 Australian entities have taken part in 755 EU-funded projects worth a total of over €36 million, they said, adding: “We have seen very productive collaboration in areas such as health, food and natural resources, energy and transport, space, research infrastructures and researchers’ mobility.”
Association negotiations with Switzerland and talks with Japan and Singapore are ongoing, the official said, and there has been “a very positive start” to New Zealand’s association.