Today, the UK Government triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and formally launched the process to leave the European Union. ELIXIR would like to clarify that this process and its outcome will not affect the legal or organisational status of ELIXIR, nor have any direct bearing on ELIXIR's ability to access EU research funding. The ELIXIR Hub uses the legal model of EMBL, which is itself an international treaty organisation. It is entirely separate from the EU and a statement from EMBL clarifies this in detail.
ELIXIR's statement published in June 2016, following the outcome of the EU referendum in the UK, still holds true today:
The UK has not voted to leave EMBL or ELIXIR. The operational budget of the ELIXIR Hub can continue to be committed on Commissioned Services carried out between the UK and other ELIXIR Members.
Furthermore, for the purposes of participating in EU research programmes, the ELIXIR Hub is categorised as an international treaty organisation (EMBL) rather than a UK entity. The ELIXIR Hub and EBI can still continue to access grants from Horizon 2020 and there will be no impact on the ELIXIR-EXCELERATE and CORBEL grants that are coordinated by the ELIXIR Hub on behalf of partners.
As the ELIXIR UK Node is made up of UK legal entities, the impact of leaving the EU on it will only be known once the negotiations are concluded. No current grants involving ELIXIR UK are affected.