• H2020
• Policy & Research

The UK government has said it will provide £137m (~€162m) to Cambridge University after pledging to underwrite research projects currently funded by the EU.

Figures released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy reveal the amount of funding received by universities, research groups, and businesses through Horizon 2020.

A Treasury statement confirmed in August that it will underwrite research projects currently funded by the EU, including Horizon 2020, even if the project continues beyond the UK’s departure from Europe.

The UK currently receives £1bn EU funding to invest in research.

The new figures show that Cambridge has been awarded more funding than any other higher education (HE) organisation in the UK under Horizon 2020, followed by University College London and Oxford University.

Groups applying for the funding must be members of a consortium, typically made up of at least three organisations from different countries.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has called for the government to excuse EU scientists already employed in the UK from wider immigration controls.

Committee chairman Stephen Metcalfe said: “Uncertainty over Brexit threatens to undermine some of the UK’s ongoing international scientific collaborations.

“Telling EU scientists and researchers already working in the UL that they are allowed to stay is one way the government could reduce that uncertainty right away.”

Senior Tutor of Trinity College, Catherine Barnard, also added: “Voluntary contributions to […] future research programmes like Horizon 2020 might give academics working in the UK the chance to participate in these arrangements.”