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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many requests for support the Research Collaboration Advice Team has received from universities since its inception.

The Research Collaboration Advice Team (RCAT) has engaged with most research-intensive universities to provide support and advice. It is crucial to maintain the confidence of universities when they have identified potential national security risks in international collaboration, therefore there are no current plans to publish the outcomes of requests for advice, nor the countries to which they refer. The RCAT continues to review its processes to ensure we are as transparent as possible when sharing information, without infringing on the assumption of confidence that the model is based on. The RCAT will reach full operational capacity by September.