Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2018 to Question 191916 on Research: Finance, how the Government plans to guarantee that funding after the end of the implementation period.

In the event the UK leaves the EU without an overall withdrawal agreement, HMG will guarantee the payment of awards for UK organisations which successfully bid directly to EU programmes (including research and innovation programmes such as Horizon 2020), until the end of 2020, for the whole lifetime of projects agreed. This includes where a project continues beyond the end of 2020.

As the Political Declaration states, the UK wishes to explore the option of association to EU research and innovation programmes post-2020, including Horizon Europe, Euratom R&T, JET, ITER and Copernicus. The UK’s future participation in EU research and innovation programmes is subject to negotiations on the future UK-EU relationship. The Government will take a longer term look at spending through the Spending Review in 2019 to ensure it is in line with policy objectives. This includes replacements for EU programmes.