The Danish universities include the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Aarhus University (€66.7 million), and the University of Copenhagen (€58.3 million).
Following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, three Danish universities—up from just one in 2018—appear among the top 10 recipients of funding from Horizon Europe, the continent’s premier innovation programme.
The three institutions received a combined total of €212 million (US$233 million) in grants. According to data from the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Research through the end of February 2023, Danish universities ranked three, four, and six on the list of top-performing universities in Horizon Europe, behind the top-performing Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and KU Leuven in Belgium.
The Danish universities include the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Aarhus University (€66.7 million), and the University of Copenhagen (€58.3 million). In total, 479 researchers at Danish universities participated in the contracts.
Other universities in the top 10 for 2023 include Ghent University in Belgium, Italy’s Polytechnic University of Milan (€52.9 million), Bologna (€47.1 million), the University of Vienna in Austria (€46.4 million) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with €46.2 million.
The trend is a significant departure from the situation in July 2018, when four UK universities—Cambridge, Oxford, University College London, and Imperial College London—took the top four spots among the top eight performers in Horizon 2020, the programme that preceded Horizon Europe.
University of Copenhagen (Denmark), EPFL Lausanne (Switzerland), KU Leuven (Belgium), and University of Edinburgh took the final spots (UK). The four universities in the United Kingdom collectively received more than €1 billion (US$1.09 billion) of the €32.5 billion that had been distributed as of that point.
UK universities have received very little funding from the new Horizon Europe programme over the last two years due to the Brexit-related Northern Ireland protocol.
According to European Commission data, the University of Oxford has only received €2 million up to February 28, while the University of Cambridge has received nothing. University College London has received €412 million through the earlier scheme, but only €4 million in the latest programme. Imperial College London received €323 million under Horizon 2020, but saw only €641,000 in the new programme.
800 participants from Denmark are currently involved in 569 Horizon Europe projects, with Denmark contributing to one out of every eight of these projects, according to the most recent official statistics. Currently, the nation works primarily with Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium. While the average European success rate is 16.14%, applications with Danish participation have a success rate of 22.46%.
According to a report from the Ministry in Copenhagen, 83 separate Marie Sklodowska-Curie mobile grants were given to researchers who chose a Danish institution as their host. With 36 international researchers pursuing their careers at one of the university’s faculties or institutes, the University of Copenhagen received the most of them.
24 researchers were sent to Aarhus University. A success rate of 24.13% was achieved for every fourth application with a Danish host institution, as opposed to a success rate of 17.9% for all applications. The grants for the 83 recipients is of total DKK 132 million (€19 million). 7% of the DKK 1.9 billion in total funding from Horizon Europe distributed will go to Danish host institutions.
The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Research credited “excellent scientists and good support at their universities” for the “impressive positions” held by Danish universities during the first two years of the Horizon Europe program.
It is “difficult to say whether Brexit — and any alleviated competition for EU-funding as a result — has impacted on Danish universities’ current participation levels,” Anders de Gaard, head of division at the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science in the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, wrote in an email to University World News.
“British partners used to be our most popular choice for transnational projects in Horizon 2020—only surpassed by Germany. So, we are obviously happy that—so far at least—Danish universities have managed to find alternatives. But the basic prerequisite for this success is Denmark’s strong scientific and innovative foundation,” he said.
Dr. Vassiliki Papatsiba, a reader in social sciences education at Cardiff University, and co-investigator in an Economic and Social Research Council-funded project on “Brexit, migration, and higher education”, agrees that Denmark stands to benefit from the UK’s departure from EU research programs.
This is due to the close dialogue between stakeholders, the intense efforts of the Horizon committees in Brussels, and Denmark’s dedication to improving coordination between contact points and research support entities.
The UK is no longer participating in Horizon Europe, opening up opportunities for Denmark to secure funding and lead collaborative research projects.
This could help strengthen the research capabilities of Danish universities and research institutions, leading to the production of high-quality research with global impact. Denmark could also attract and retain talented researchers from across the world, enhancing its reputation as a hub for research excellence and innovation.
However, it is important to note that this is not a zero-sum game. The UK has historically been a strong partner and collaborator in EU research programmes, and its absence may lead to a shrinking of the collaborative pool, which could affect everyone involved.
The overall funding available for EU research programmes has decreased due to the UK’s departure, which could have adverse effects on the quality and impact of the research produced. However, Denmark’s success should be seen as part of a larger trend of increasing investment in research and innovation across Europe, as countries recognise the importance of investing in these areas to drive growth and progress.
Dan Andrée, former representative of Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, and current Brussels representative for the University Alliance Stockholm Trio, told University World News that Denmark had become the “top university” since Brexit, receiving €95.9 million for 164 Horizon Europe projects.
Professor Eskild Holm Nielsen, dean of the faculty of technical sciences at Aarhus University, said his university had been one of the first to adopt a mission-driven approach, which was a primary reason for its success in securing Horizon funding. He noted that Brexit did not automatically mean that the alliance’s share would increase, but it had been able to benefit due to its existing strengths.
Massimo Busuoli, head of the NTNU Brussels office, is “thrilled” by the institution’s current position at the European level, which has improved by 10 places since last October. NTNU has been working with a mission-driven approach and has a large faculty with experience in green transition.
The university’s efforts to increase its contribution to research and innovation started over seven years ago and are now bearing fruit with a solid support system composed of EU advisors, central level colleagues, and a structured Brussels office.
Positioning and improved collaboration dialogue with EU counterparts have been key elements in achieving this, and the UK’s decreased participation in Europe Horizon should be looked at based on project participation, not funding.
The statistics for UK players are obviously skewed by the fact that their participation is funded by the national budget of that nation. He noted that NTNU’s cooperation with UK players was “still very good” and that there were “a significant number of funded projects in Horizon Europe where we are cooperating with them.”
As the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions and European Research Council’s national contact point for the EU in Norway for Horizon Europe, Per Magnus Kommandantvold stated that he can see how the absence of the UK from Pillar 1 in particular “leaves a scientific void that is not easily filled.”
Collaborations come to an end, and access to the top institutions in the UK is not realized. Nobody benefits from this situation, especially not European scientific excellence.
According to Bruce Reed, a retired consultant who has advised clients on EU research programmes for three decades, particularly in Norway, UK participation in the EU R&D programmes has been severely hampered by Brexit and, in particular, the fallout from the dispute over the Northern Ireland portion of that agreement. “As retaliation, the EU announced that the UK would not participate in Horizon going forward while the dispute persisted.”
On March 21, the UK government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received 515 votes in favour of moving forward with the so-called “Windsor Framework,” a revised agreement with the EU for Northern Ireland. Both Liz Truss, Boris Johnson’s brief replacement as prime minister, as well asImperial, programs— the hardline rebels as a whole, were reduced to a rump.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has made it known that she is prepared to begin negotiations with th ande UK on a Horizon association agreement as soon as the Windsor Framework agreement is put into effect, removing the obstacle to UK participation. Reed said that the UK will resume its engagement with the EU’s R&D programme once a new agreement is in place.
He noted that the leadership table of Horizon-participating universities reflects three things: how important international co-operation in research through the EU is, how their internal experience and European networks have developed, and the extent to which the ‘applied science’ profile of Horizon and its different sub-programmes is reflected in the strengths and priorities of European universities.
How well the researchers speak English, according to Reed, is the “secret success factor” for participation in Horizon programmes.