The UK has signed up for another year with CLARIN ERIC, and has made a significant step towards full membership.
A proposal from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to prolong our involvement in CLARIN ERIC as an observer has been accepted today.
The previous term as an observer ended on 30 June 2021, and an application for full membership or withdrawal are normally expected as the next step. However, in view of the ongoing post-Brexit negotiations and in particular the fact that the EC and UK have not yet found agreement on the conditions under which the UK could participate in Horizon Europe, the UK has paused applying for membership of European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).
As the previous UK observership was a prolongation, which is already exceptional, it could not be prolonged again under the same conditions.A new model therefore had to be found to bridge the intermediate period between July 2021 and the finalization of the post-Brexit negotiations of the EC and UK.
The proposal for re-admission as observer of CLARIN ERIC under special conditions, including the obligation to pay the fee for regular membership, minus a 10% reduction, was accepted by the General Assembly.
For any researchers interested in what is going on in CLARIN, the best way to find out would be to attend the free online annual conference at the end of this month - full details and registration here: https://www.clarin.eu/event/2021/clarin-annual-conference-2021-virtual-event .
