Access to the EU’s €95bn research programme – Horizon Europe – is contingent on signing up to other rules and regulations, so that non-EU countries are on the same level playing-field as the 27 member states.
For non-EU nations like Norway, it is relatively smooth sailing as it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), whose rules are very closely aligned with the full-fat EU codex. But for Switzerland and the UK, it is more complex.
This time last year, talks between Bern and Brussels broke down, as the Swiss government pulled the plug on a bilateral deal that would have codified hundreds of separate agreements with the EU into one overarching framework.
Swiss ministers were concerned that the pact would undermine the Alpine republic’s preciously guarded sovereignty over migration, labour and judicial matters. That meant that the EU had to put the brakes on programmes like Horizon Europe.
Post-Brexit Britain is also locked out of the programme, despite...