Sir Patrick Vallence says ‘absolutely clear’ that UK should rejoin Horizon Europe

The UK’s readmission into the EU Horizon programme appears to have stalled until after Parliament’s summer recess.

Britain has already lost out on two years of the programme, Europe’s key funding programme for research and innovation, which started in 2021 and runs until 2027.

Rail minister Huw Merriman first touted the prospect of rejoining the programme when he toured Cambridge Biomedical Campus in early June.

It was suggested that a draft deal to rejoin the EU’s €95.5bn science programme had been “drawn up”, but earlier this month it was reported that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was “concerned” over the price tag.

Last week, as nerves frayed, former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said Britain not being part of the research programme - described as vital for Cambridge’s life sciences in 2020 – was “damaging” both the UK and EU.

Sir Patrick was speaking at the Future of Britain conference, organised by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

“I expect some news on that particular [Horizon] programme at some point,” he said in response to a question. “It is absolutely clear. A system like Horizon that allowed great collaboration right the way across Europe is now geopolitically important. China is in ascendancy in science and technology. America has obviously been doing great stuff but it has also become a little bit more protectionist.

“And we have suddenly cut ourselves off from this system. It is damaging to the EU and it is damaging to the UK.

“It is there ready for us to join.”

PA stated: “Sources have told PA news agency that the Prime Minister is considering a draft deal to join Horizon but No 10 has insisted in recent weeks that ‘a deal has not been agreed’.”