Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to maximise drawdown of European research and innovation-related grants and other forms of investment for academic institutions.

Our academic institutions had a strong track record in attracting European research grants under the previous Framework Programme 7 (FP7), taking 25% of the higher education pot. The Government is keen to maintain this leadership with the FP7 successor, Horizon 2020. In partnership with Innovate UK and Local Enterprise Partnerships, we will work with our Higher Education Institutions and their representative bodies to ensure that they are aware of the opportunities and that they are supported through the processes. Horizon 2020 is much larger than FP7, with an allocation of €89bn over its seven years (compared to €53bn in FP7), and the widening of its scope to cover innovation is a good fit with UK policies for a knowledge economy.