Response to the Prime Minister's speech

21 May 2018

In response to the Prime Minister’s speech on science and innovation, Russell Group Chief Executive, Dr Tim Bradshaw said:

“Today the Prime Minister gave her strongest indication yet that the Government would like to associate fully with Horizon Europe, the successor programme to Horizon 2020, and that it will be willing to make an appropriate financial contribution to do so.

“The Russell Group has been calling for this commitment to help ensure that the UK continues to be a global leader in science and innovation once we have left the European Union. In order to play our part in meeting the very real challenges set out by Mrs May in her speech, such as combatting life-threatening diseases and tackling climate change through new technologies, it will be essential that UK researchers can continue to collaborate closely with their European counterparts.

“The Prime Minister gave a welcome, high-level commitment to ensuring that Brexit will not diminish the UK’s ability to attract the best researchers and academics. All eyes in the higher education community will be on the Immigration White Paper, promised by ministers before the summer, to set out, in detail, how the government intends to achieve this aim.”

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