In view of a potential no-deal Brexit within the next grant period starting 1 May 2019, resulting in the ineligibility of the UK to EU funding (European Commission – Press release – Contingency and preparedness legislative measures – The EU budget), the COST Association has requested UK grant holders to transfer their role to another grant holder in the COST Action they are participating in. This decision has been communicated by the COST Association on 15 April 2019 to the UK grant holders and Chairs of the COST Actions concerned, as well as to the UK government representatives to COST.
It should be underlined that the switch of the UK grant holder positions will not impact the opportunity for UK researchers to participate in COST Action activities, to continue and take up scientific positions in Actions, such as Action Chair, Vice Chair and Working Group leader.
The COST Association is receiving its funding on a yearly basis from the EU Commission’s Research and Innovation framework programme through specific grant agreements. This EU funding is channelled to the COST Actions through annual grants, administered by grant holder institutions. In turn, these institutions redistribute the funds to the individual COST Action participants.
This functioning is based on the specific article (art. 15) “Providing Financial Support to Third Parties”. The list of eligible countries to which Art. 15 can be applied is specified in the Annexes of the EU Commission’s work programme. The UK would inevetably disappear from the list of eligible countries in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
In this situation, the funding cascade via UK grant holders would no longer be feasible, as all reimbursement claims from UK administered Action participants would no longer be eligible. As a result, the COST Association would need to end immediately all grant agreements with UK institutions, thereby jeopardizing the ongoing networking activities. This would obviously be highly disruptive for the 20 UK administered COST Actions.
COST welcomes the so-called Underwrite of the UK government, as this would comfort individual UK participants of COST Actions. However, this would not alleviate the problem with UK grant holders who have the vital function to redistribute COST funds to participants from Europe and beyond.
The management of the COST Association deeply regrets the current situation but wants to ensure the continuity of the UK administered Actions to the benefit of all Action participants, including those of the UK.