Brussels, Dec 5 : A specialized committee of the European Union (EU) gave a final pass for the UK's rejoining the Horizon Europe program, the European Commission has said in a press release. Starting on January 1, 2024, British researchers will again participate in the research and innovation program on equal footing with their EU counterparts, after the EU-UK Specialized Committee on Participation in Union Programs formally approved a new association agreement. British researchers will also gain access to Horizon Europe funding, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the press release. Horizon Europe stands as the EU's key funding program for research and innovation, boasting a budget of 95.5 billion euros (about $103.48 billion) for the period 2021-2027. Monday's agreement also gave the green light to the UK's involvement in the Copernicus component of the Space Program, which is the Earth observation component of the EU Space program, offering information services based on satellite Earth Observation and in-situ (non-space) data. The UK will contribute around 2.43 billion euros per year on average to the EU budget for its participation in Horizon Europe, and roughly 154 million euros for participation in Copernicus, said the press release. (1 euro = $1.08) /IANS