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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the outcome of the EU referendum does not have an adverse effect on funding for collaboration by and recruitment of astrophysicists.

The UK will maintain its status as a global centre for research and innovation. In last year’s Spending Review the Government committed to protecting science resource funding in real terms from its 2015-16 level of £4.7 billion a year for the rest of the parliament, as well as committing to invest in new scientific infrastructure on a record scale – £6.9 billion over the period 2015-2021.

While the UK remains a member of the EU, funding and collaboration arrangements continue unchanged. Researchers can continue to bid for competitive EU research funding such as Horizon 2020 while we remain a member of the EU. The Government will work with the Commission to ensure payment when funds are awarded. The Treasury will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU. This commitment will provide reassurance and stability to the research community, and recruitment should continue as normal.