08-Sep-2023
The UK has announced that it will be rejoining the Horizon research scheme. This follows the news earlier this week that Diamond Light Source has received additional funding for upgrades from the UK government; both significant developments for the UK structural biology community.
The country’s absence from the Horizon programme has led to some uncertainties to the extent that UK-based institutions could be involved with Horizon Europe projects.
The engagement and involvement with scientific initiatives such as ERICs has been at risk for the UK, which is a major contributor to European integrated structural biology research.
Further UK involvement with Horizon will enhance European collaboration, which will contribute to the continued success of Instruct providing democratised access to structural biology services.
Dr Megan Dowie, the UK Medical Research Council’s head of molecular and cellular medicine said: “UK participation in Horizon Europe will continue to strengthen the bilateral opportunities available for both UK and European based researchers to collaborate. These activities have always been recognised as highly valuable to researchers in the structural biology community. News of UK association is much welcomed and through initiatives such as Instruct-ERIC will allow the whole community to thrive”.
Another major boost to the UK structural biology community is the planned upgrade to Diamond Light Source, part of Instruct-UK. Diamond will receive more than £500m in funding, aiming to develop Diamond-II.
The facility currently provides structural biology services including fragment screening workflows, electron microscopy, and X-ray techniques through Instruct-ERIC.
During the Covid-19 pandemic Diamond accelerated the development of therapeutics, both small molecule and biologics and contributed to the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, characterising the presentation of the viral spike, as well as determining the efficacy of existing drugs against variants of concern. The possible technologies available with the development of Diamond-II could be hugely significant for global structural biology research into the future.
Sir David Stuart, Director of Life Sciences at Diamond Light Source, said: “It is great to have two real good news stories for UK/European science in one week. The funding to upgrade Diamond will help keep Diamond at the forefront globally. Although the majority of Diamond users are from the UK, we have always seen ourselves as embedded in the European science landscape, working, especially through our participation in Instruct-ERIC, to directly engage with other centres across Europe and to welcome European users. Joining Horizon Europe ends a very long period of uncertainty which has been damaging for UK science. I hope the UK can now take its place with friends in Europe and start to rebuild trust and respect to everyone’s mutual benefit.”
Instruct Director Prof. Harald Schwalbe said: “This move is very important to ensure that European Science can stay together and move together. Given the nature of opportunities and challenges ahead, participation of UK institutions in European projects is mutually beneficial. Given my personal admiration of the excellence of UK research, I am personally very happy to hear about this extremely positive news today.”
Explore the Instruct-UK centre here, and apply to access the huge range of available structural biology technology.
Instruct-ERIC was invited to be part of the launch of the UK association with Horizon Europe, held at the Royal Society in London, February 2024.
The event saw researchers and ministers from across Europe provide their insight on how democratised access to science is a benefit for the UK and beyond, and how the UK's association with Horizon Europe can provide benefits for researchers worldwide.
