"Pivotal” Horizon Europe Pump Priming grants forging successful futures for UK researchers

As the next round of Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration grants prepares to open this month, UK researchers continue to form impactful partnerships with their EU counterparts, with international collaborations shaping major proposals under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

Funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with support from the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Academy Pump Priming programme enables researchers to run workshops, align objectives and develop compelling proposals. The short-term, high-impact grants position UK-based researchers to succeed in securing funding from Horizon Europe, the EU’s €95.5 billion research and innovation programme running until 2027.

In 2024, Dr Xingyu Zhao at the University of Warwick kickstarted the Horizon Europe project ‘AIGGREGATE: AI-enhanced collective intelligence for resilient, ethical and user-centric awareness and decision making in CCAM (connected and cooperative automated mobility) applications’. Dr Zhao partnered with experts in mobility, ethics and systems engineering across Europe to build a safety-focused AI-enhanced intelligence framework for future transport systems. From AI-enabled risk awareness to human-centric system design, the collaboration brought together technical expertise and ethical foresight.

Dr Zhao said: “The funding from the British Academy was pivotal in unifying our cross-border consortium, supporting preliminary research and aligning stakeholders through workshops and meetings.”

“It enabled us to clarify roles, adjust research strategies cost-effectively, and collaborate on writing to sharpen our Horizon proposal. This groundwork solidified our safety-centric technical framework for CCAM, ensuring the consortium’s readiness for the Horizon Europe submission.”

Through seed funding and strategic support, the British Academy’s Pump Priming grants ensure that UK-based scholars like Dr Zhao remain embedded in Europe-wide research networks, allowing their work to drive innovation at a global scale.

In 2022 Dr Stefano Ciavatta, a Senior Researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory and successful Pump Priming applicant, collaborated with European researchers and the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) to deliver new products informing marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management. This research is a significant step in improving the monitoring of our ocean’s biodiversity.

And, at the University of York, Professor Kamran Siddiqi collaborated with European researchers on the FRESHAIR4LIFE project, targeting tobacco and air pollution exposure in mid- to late adolescents in disadvantaged populations. The project worked in Greece, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Romania and Uganda to deliver air pollution exposure prevention packages to marginalised groups.

Across these projects, the Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration grants are helping researchers take the first, crucial steps toward larger-scale EU funding. These partnerships ensure the UK remains at the forefront of addressing the complex global challenges we face today.

The next round of Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration grants related to the 2025 call opens later this month. Researchers interested in applying can find the pre-published Work Programmes on the European Commission’s website.

For UK small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Innovate UK will shortly be opening a similar scheme. It would be a step towards participating in projects across a wide range of sectors under Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe.