Horizon Europe Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Bassam of Brighton
Main Page: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Bassam of Brighton's debates with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberI thank the noble Lord for his question. He is right that the SME sector is underrepresented, and there is a specific effort to increase its ability to engage and to raise awareness within it. We hope that will be a major part of the European networking programme as well.
My Lords, can the noble Lord give us an estimate of the damage done to our research and development programmes through our absence from the Horizon scheme over the past few years?
There is absolutely no doubt that quite significant damage was done. That the participation rate dropped so dramatically, from 16% of all grants coming to the UK in 2015 to 6.5% in 2022, shows the scale of the damage. At the moment, it is not possible to work that out in terms of patents or publications, partly because those indicators are so lagging, but we will look at that and I fully expect to see some change.