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 of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on funding for higher education academic research at universities in the West Midlands.

The Government is undertaking a wide range of analysis in support of our EU exit negotiations and preparations. Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that would reveal our negotiating position.

However, we have consistently made clear that research and innovation are vital to the UK’s prosperity, security and wellbeing, which is why they are at the heart of the Government’s industrial strategy.

It is in the interests of the UK and EU for us to continue to collaborate and my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister has recently said that the UK would like the option to fully associate with the excellence-based European science and innovation programmes under the EU’s next multiannual financial framework (MFF).

Under the current MFF, the text of the December Joint Report envisages that UK entities’ right to participate in EU programmes will be unaffected by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU for the duration of projects. We have made significant progress in turning the Joint Report into the legal text of the draft Withdrawal Agreement, and the Government’s guarantee of funding continues to stand if necessary.