Research and Development Funding and Horizon Europe

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. I pass on apologies from my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), who has been unavoidably delayed. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) on securing this vital debate. He is a great champion of universities and research across the country, particularly in his own constituency, and I know that my shadow ministerial colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, recently visited Sheffield University’s gene therapy innovation and manufacturing centre, which my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central mentioned in his speech.

I also congratulate the other Members who have spoken, including my hon. Friends the Members for Wirral West (Margaret Greenwood), for York Central (Rachael Maskell) and for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter). They all made it clear that the UK has a world-leading science base. We rank third, behind only the US and China, in science and technology journal articles, and we have four of the world’s top 10 universities. As well as pushing the boundaries of humanity’s collective understanding, science represents a priceless platform for the UK’s future growth and prosperity, as well as to ensure our security and respond to the global threats that have been referred to today, from pandemics to climate change.

Under this Government, we have not seen our rich science base converted into the high-skill, high-wage and high-productivity economy that we all want to see. We have the lowest levels of business investment in the G7. As a result, our great UK science start-ups are being bought up or moving abroad. We have seen a constant churn of Ministers—nine in five years—with multiple changes of policy and strategy, and chronic uncertainty, making it impossible for people to invest or plan for the future. We have had an innovation strategy, a research and development road map, a science plan, an Office for Science and Technology strategy, Grand Challenges, the first National Science and Technology Council, the new National Science and Technology Council, and two reorganisations of UKRI, as well as other multiple broken promises.

The reality on the ground is stark. I recently met representatives of Universities Wales, who told me that nearly a thousand jobs are at risk across the sector in Wales because of a combination of the end of the Horizon funding with no deal yet on the horizon, the failure to replace the crucial European regional development fund and the European social fund, and the changes around Erasmus. That means that high-quality, high-paid academic and technical jobs are at risk for almost a thousand people in Wales alone, which is reflected across the United Kingdom.

As hon. Members of different parties have said, innovation and science are critical to building regional economies across the UK that are strong and self-sufficient. However, under this Government, that has very much been concentrated on the golden triangle of the greater south-east, which receives more public R&D funding than the rest of England combined, excluding regions, towns and cities from the high-paid, high-skilled science jobs that we need to drive growth. We on this side of the House would champion universities and clusters of universities across the UK as engines of regional growth, and we see a clear path from investing in scientific research to creating jobs on which people can raise a family. We have called for a target of 3% of GDP to be invested in R&D. I understand that Ministers claimed recently that we have reached 2.8% with the new accounting approach. Will the Minister confirm that and admit that we were right to call for that crucial 3% target?

On Horizon Europe, the Conservatives made a manifesto promise that they would associate with that €95 billion programme, which is the world’s biggest science funding scheme. They have repeated that promise more than 50 times, and across social media, yet we have seen years of delay and uncertainty, whereby jobs, projects and inward investment have been lost. There was also chaos recently with the Northern Ireland protocol negotiations, which have now thankfully been resolved. The Minister will undoubtedly say that negotiations are under way, but the reality is that we have seen scientists and researchers having to choose between the country that they love and the funding that they need. Indeed, there is not even a single mention of Horizon in the latest two science plans.

We have heard a lot today about Pioneer, but it simply does not match Horizon Europe for funding, prestige, influence or range. The sector knows it, the Minister knows it and the Prime Minister knows it. I note that the national academies that would be delivering the Pioneer talent element say that Horizon Europe is still their first choice. The British Academy says that the association with Horizon must remain an “overriding priority”, and the Royal Academy of Engineering says that that is its “strong preference”.

We will also have huge administration and set-up costs with Pioneer. How much of the £14 billion would actually be spent as grants for our scientists and researchers? Much of it will be spent on bureaucracy, thereby short-changing our science base. The UK Government claim that Pioneer will provide more funding for R&D than it would have received through Horizon, but I am not sure how they can make that claim, when the reality is that the UK was the second top grant receiver from Horizon 2020 and we got more out of the programme than we put in. Almost half of Pioneer’s total budget—£6 billion—is set outside the current spending review period. Is that an unfunded spending commitment, or will it be part of the Government’s seemingly abandoned promise to invest £22 billion in R&D by 2027?

Can the Minister say what steps his Government will take to increase public and private research and development across the UK? I mentioned the loss of crucial funding from the European regional development fund—£618 million—that has not been replaced by the shared prosperity fund or other funds. Of course, the Government have not provided detail on how British scientists will be supported after the Horizon guarantee ends in June. Can the Minister explain whether that guarantee will be extended, and how the Government will prevent a draining of jobs and talent away from our crucial science sector in the months to come?

We deserve a Government who do not politicise the funding and livelihoods of our science base. We cannot build a science superpower with sticking plaster policies. Labour will deliver on Horizon association, boost R&D across the UK and catalyse the regions that have been left out of our science investment.