In the Brexit withdrawal agreement the UK agreed to remain part of the Horizon programmes after Brexit and to contribute £2.1 billion a year towards the Horizon budget.
However the EU is stalling on UK participation and it is thought that it is doing so to provide leverage in the Northern Ireland negotiations.
The Telegraph quotes a ‘senior government source’ as stating: “Blocking the UK from joining Horizon is in no one’s interest – we can’t participate and they lose out on our financial contribution. We’re having to look at alternatives in case the EU does block our access, which would be a breach of what we agreed less than a year ago.”
The government is said to be working out how it can replicate domestically the research programmes which would be lost if we walked away from Horizon.