Rishi Sunak has promised UK scientists a £15bn version of the Horizon Europe research programme, with the UK's associate membership of that EU programme still in limbo due to Brexit.
The former chancellor - believed to be trailing rival Liz Truss in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Tory party, and thus become de facto prime minister until at least the next general election - made the announcement ahead of the latest Tory hustings in Birmingham, where he called the West Midlands the “birthplace of the first Industrial Revolution”.
The EU's flagship Horizon programme has been at the centre of Brexit controversies over the past few months, with the UK government recently writing to the European Commission demanding that the bloc ends “persistent delays” to the approval of the UK's associate membership to the £81bn research fund.
The continuation of the UK's participation in Horizon was foreseen in the 2020 Brexit agreement...