This week the science minister, George Freeman, ... said the UK was ready to press ahead with its plan B if the dispute is not resolved.

Bargaining Chip

Freeman highlighted the possible "global collaborations" on offer if the United Kingdom leaves the EU programme, with countries including Switzerland, Israel and Japan.

....
However, both Switzerland and Israel are participants in Horizon Europe, and Japan has also entered talks to join Horizon, as have other nations outside the EU, including South Korea, New Zealand and Canada. "Horizon is where the party's at," says Martin Smith, head of the policy lab at Wellcome, a biomedical-research funder in London. "To try and build something independently of that will be extremely difficult."

UK allocates £6.9B of its science budget for Horizon Europe | Oct. 28, 2021 |

Britons Be Bold

As EU hangs tough on tying UK association in Horizon Europe to ending the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK government is dangling the funding carrot and says if there is no deal, it has a 'bold' plan B

You tweeted this once and deleted it? Is that because you were asked if you really had a plan? I mean there's been no sight of a plan for the last 10 years.

— ian 'spike' milligan (@spikestweeting) October 15, 2021