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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the ONS data on Business Gross domestic expenditure on research and development published on 22 November 2022, what assessment his Department has made of the impact in the reduction in other EU funding for research and development between 2020 to 2021 on research and development.

The UK agreed to associate to EU R&D Programmes but there have been persistent delays from the EU in finalising UK association. This is creating significant uncertainty for our scientific communities.

The Government’s priority remains to support the UK’s research and development sector through this period. This is why we have already put in place the guarantee, which ensures that eligible, successful applicants to Horizon Europe can receive, via UKRI, the full value of their funding at their UK host institution for the lifetime of their grant. The guarantee covers all calls that close by 31st December 2022. On 21 November, the Government announced up to £484m additional funding to be invested in the UK R&D sector.

Association to Horizon Europe remains the UK’s preference and the Government continues to do everything we can to secure this.