Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to utilise UK research collaborations with African universities to support social and economic development on that continent.

UK research collaborations with African universities support extensive development on the continent. We partner with other Government Departments to deliver a whole of UK approach across a broad range of issues. On energy, we collaborate with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to support UK-Africa research partnerships to develop clean energy solutions to address energy poverty on the continent. On health, we work with the Hygiene Hub at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, alongside Africa CDC, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia and the Malawi University for Business and Applied Sciences to prevent the spread of transmissible diseases including covid-19 and cholera.