Science minister George Freeman said that the UK was ready to launch its own £15 billion international research programme, as he prepared to visit Brussels for the “last round of talks” over Horizon Europe association.
In a blunt message to the European Union, Mr Freeman warned that “time was running out” following the bloc’s “continued blocking of the UK from Europe’s flagship research programmes that we have negotiated”, and the UK government was set to press ahead with its own global research scheme.
“We can’t let UK researchers be sidelined,” said Mr Freeman in a series of tweets ahead of his visit the Belgian capital, saying the lengthy delays to the UK’s agreed membership of Horizon Europe were “deeply problematic”.
