Government is due to hold talks with the European Union about the UK having associate membership of the bloc's science funding and research program, Horizon.
Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, will today travel to Brussels for a meeting with her European Commission counterpart Mariya Gabriel.
The meeting is described as introductory, with a Whitehall source telling PoliticsHome that any agreement giving UK access to the Horizon scheme would still take some time.
Speaking ahead of her trip this afternoon, Donelan stressed that the UK would only sign up to the "right terms". Meanwhile, the government is drawing up an alternative post-Brexit plan for the science and technology sectors if negotiations with Brussels over Horizon fail to produce a deal, which it is expected to publish in the coming days.
