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

To ask Her Majesty's Government on what date they applied to join the Horizon Europe programme; on what date the application was accepted; what were the reasons for the delay to the start of the UK’s participation in the programme; and what assessment they have made of the effects of that delay on research institutions in the UK.

The UK and the EU agreed the terms for our association to Horizon Europe under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

As the underpinning EU legislation was not yet adopted when the TCA was agreed, this was accompanied by a Joint Declaration on Participation in Union Programmes and Access to Programme Services, which set out the parties’ intention to formalise our participation at the earliest opportunity.

Now that the EU legislation underpinning the Horizon Europe programme is in force, the UK stands ready to formalise our participation.