British Academy responds to proposed European Fund for Strategic Investments

The British Academy's Foreign Secretary & Vice-President, Professor Dame Helen Wallace, has written today to the Prime Minister expressing the Academy's concerns with the European Commission's proposal to take €2.7 billion from the European Union's research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Dame Helen highlights that “this would be a significant blow to the ambitious programme that was agreed by the Government and other Member States in 2013”. 

In addition, the President of the All European Academies, Professor Günter Stock, has writtento the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, expressing the disquiet amongst European academies at the Commission's proposal. Both Professor Stock and Dame Helen highlight the critical importance of the European Research Council as well as the humanities and social sciences in driving the innovation, creativity, and understanding required to deliver sustainable economic growth and prosperity as well as maintain, as Dame Helen says, the UK as a global centre for research.