Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Government's policy paper, Collaboration on Science and Innovation: Future Partnership Paper, published on 6 September 2017, what assessment the Government has made on the potential effect on the UK research and innovation sector of the UK no longer being able to continue working through EUREKA, CERN, ESA or EBI after the UK leaves the EU.

EUREKA is an intergovernmental network which helps mostly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe and aground the world to collaborate on R&D across borders to bring innovative ideas to market. The UK is a member of EUREKA in its own right and this does not change when the UK leaves the EU. The UK will continue to collaborate with European and international partners through the EUREKA network, and play a key role in this initiative. The UK will Chair the EUREKA Network from July 2018 to June 2019.

The UK’s membership of CERN is also unaffected by the UK leaving the EU. CERN is not an EU institution; it is an Intergovernmental Organisation subject to its own treaty. The European Space Agency (ESA) is a research organisation that is not part of the European Union. In December 2016, the Government committed €1.4 billion, reinforcing our intention to continue collaborating within the ESA on Space research and development.

Similarly, the European Bioinformatics Institute is a treaty organisation existing outside of the EU and UK participation is not impacted by the UK leaving the EU.