More than 1,000 universities and science academies in Europe have urged the European Commission to let Britain quickly join its €95.5bn 'Horizon' research programme, following 10-months of Brexit-linked delays. Excluding the UK was "endangering current and future plans for collaboration" and could "result in a major weakening of our collective research", they said in an open letter. Only a "global community" could "move forward from the Covid pandemic", they said.