A future partnership paper issued by UK Government outlines how continued collaboration in science and innovation is an important part of the UK’s future partnership with the EU.
The Government’s paper on science and innovation will lay out a range of mechanisms and areas for future collaboration that the UK will seek to discuss with the EU as part of the negotiations on the future partnership.
It also considers areas where there are precedents for countries outside the EU to participate in pan-European programmes such as Galileo and Copernicus.
The programmes and mechanisms include space programmes including Space Surveillance and Tracking.
The UK space sector is worth over £11.8bn to the UK economy, and employs at least 37,000 people around the country.
The paper will also lay out projects on nuclear research including:
- The Oxfordshire-based JET (Joint European Torus) which is funded by the EU’s Euratom research and training programme and supports 1,300 jobs in the UK, 600 of which are highly skilled scientists and engineers and
- ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)
The UK will also continue to collaborate with European partners through international organisations that are not part of the EU for example the EUREKA network that helps SMEs collaborate on R&D across borders and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European platform for particle physics and the fundamental laws of nature of which the UK was a founding member.
Other initiatives include the European Medicines Agency and Horizon 2020, which has over 7,300 UK participants so far and has seen many successes through collaboration, including through the innovative medicines initiatives.
Science minister Jo Johnson said:” With science and innovation at the heart of our industrial strategy and our additional investment of £4.7bn for research and development, we are ensuring we are best placed to continue being at the forefront of new discoveries, and look forward to continuing that journey with the best minds across Europe.
“The paper makes clear that the Government is committed to maintaining the UK’s status as a world leader in science and innovation and strengthening its science and research base, which already includes four of the world’s top ten universities, a world class intellectual property regime and more Nobel Laureates than any country outside the United States.”
