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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his policy to finance participation in Horizon Europe from the existing budgets for the UK Research and Innovation Fund.

I am pleased that the UK reached an agreement to take part in the Horizon Europe programme. Association to Horizon has been welcomed by businesses and the research community and will bring huge benefits to the UK.

The Government will be making available an additional £250m in 2021/22 for Horizon association. Also, £400m of funding announced at SR20 to support government priorities has been made available to help pay for our association to Horizon Europe. As a result, UK scientists will have access to more public funding than ever before.

This takes total Government investment in R&D to £14.9 billion in 2021/22 and follows four years of significant growth in R&D funding, including a boost of more than £1.5 billion in 2020/21. It will mean UK Government R&D spending is now at its highest level in four decades.