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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made on the impact of UK-based researchers losing or giving up their grants from the European Research Council on (a) the international reputation of UK science and (b) future investment into UK-based research.

The UK’s preference remains to associate to Horizon Europe and we are disappointed that the EU continues to delay this. To provide reassurance, the Government has stepped in to ensure UK-based researchers who have obtained European Research Council grants will not lose out on funding.

Through the UK’s Horizon guarantee, the Government will fund eligible successful UK applicants who expect to sign grant agreements by December 2022 and who have been unable to sign agreements with the EU. This means that UK-based researchers can receive the full value of their funding to take their projects forward at their UK institutions.