Published on Fri, 10/06/2022 - 15:03
Earlier today (10th June), successful ERC Awardees and MSCA Fellows from the 2021 Horizon Europe calls were contacted by the EC informing them that the process to terminate the EC Grant Agreement Preparation sessions will soon be initiated. As previously communicated, termination of the EC Grant Agreement Preparations for these projects was an expected step as the UK’s current lack of association to the Horizon Europe programme means that we are unable to sign the EC Grant Agreements. Instead, where the awardees have elected not to take their grant to an institution in the EU, these projects will be transferred to UKRI and be funded as part of the UK Government’s underwrite guarantee.
While the termination of the Grant Agreement with the EC was anticipated, the communication from the EC this morning has caused some alarm due to a lack of clarity around the next steps to be taken and the apparent urgency of the request.
The Research Office has been in touch with the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA) , European Research Executive Agency (REA) and our National Contact Points to clarify the next steps in relation to the termination process. ERC awardees and MSCA Fellows can continue to work on the submission to the UKRI underwrite via JeS, following the instructions previously emailed to them by the Research Office.
This situation impacts only those new awards under the Horizon Europe framework and ongoing H2020 grants are currently not affected and can continue as normal.