The UK rejoined Horizon Europe in January 2024, after temporarily leaving the programme post-Brexit. But what kind of opportunities does Horizon unlock for British scientists?
Here are three groundbreaking projects from the Horizon 2020 funding round, that the UK was ineligible for. Three reasons why we should celebrate this advancement in UK-EU relations.
But first - what is Horizon?
Horizon is the EU’s key funding programme for research and development, focused on:
- Tackling climate change;
- Reaching the UN’s sustainability targets;
- Creating jobs;
- Producing world-leading research across Europe.
The programme supports principles of open science and attempts to solve some of the largest societal issues through an integrated research infrastructure, which brings together different stakeholders from the private and public sectors. Find out more in our FAQ on Horizon.
Horizon helps clean the world's oceans
In 2020, Horizon funding helped launch the MAELSTROM project (Smart Technology for MArinE Litter SusTainable RemOval and Management), designed to clean up the 83 million tons of plastic waste estimated to be littering our oceans. The project brought together a cross-sector team of 14 partners, including marine scientists, experts in AI and robotics, recycling companies and research centres, from eight European countries. Their approach was to design, manufacture and integrate technologies that can identify, remove, sort and transform all types of collected marine litter into valuable raw materials.
Here's how the project works in practice. In Italy and Portugal, at the points that seas converge, MAELSTROM stops rubbish through two different technologies.In Portugal, the project uses bubble barriers developed by Dutch partner The Great Bubble Barrier.In Italy, a robotic seabed cleaning platform has been developed by Spanish, French and Italian companies.
So far MAELSTROM has removed over seven tons of waste from entering Europe’s waters, and processes the waste it recovers through recycling plants to be sustainably reused. The project monitors the sites to analyse the long-term effects on marine life and ecosystems, and works to raise awareness of the need for public climate responsibility.
Pushing the boundaries of robotics
The ocean is not the only place where Horizon 2020-funded projects are utilising robotics. Italian researchers have designed the first ever magnetic robotic prosthetic for amputees. Co-author of the study Dr Lorenzo Andreani, from the University Hospital of Pisa, called the project “a significant advancement in the field of advanced prosthetic medicine”.
The patient, Daniel, who had lost his arm in 2022, had six small magnets implanted into his arm. The medical team was able to locate and isolate each muscle, orienting the magnetic field of each magnet so that Daniel could control the prosthetic through his remaining muscle. The magnetic prosthetic allowed Daniel to gain unprecedented movement within his fingers and control the force of his grip, whilst managing fragile objects as well as perform a host of other complex tasks.
Making our cities greener
Horizon also funded the URBAN GreenUP project with €14 million from the 2020 financial support pot. The project was focused on renaturing cities so that they could become more sustainable, mitigating the effects of climate change and improving air quality and water management. The project was first tested across three cities: Liverpool (UK), Valloidad (Spain) and Izmir (Turkey), and used tactics like 'green roofs' and sustainable drainage systems.
The project was a major success, leading to the development of a handbook to inspire and guide further eco-development of cities around the world. Today, a further five cities around the world are utilising the research and methodology of URBAN GreenUP: Mantova (Italy), Ludwigsberg (Germany), Medillin (Colombia), Chengdu (China) and Binh Dinh-Quy Nhon (Vietnam).
The project symbolises the importance of Horizon in not only providing funding for research and scientific discovery, but the manner in which such research can then be exported around the world as a human, social and environmental good. The funding from Horizon into URBAN GreenUP also informed the EU’s policies in the European Green Deal, and initiated further targeted climate-based funding from the programme.