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<p>The UK Government is committed to ensuring that UK and EU researchers, universities
and businesses in the steel sector will be able to continue to collaborate after the
UK leaves the European Union.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s priority remains ensuring
the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is ratified. This would ensure that UK entities’ right
to participate in the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) would be unaffected
by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU until the end of 2020: the WA envisages that UK
participants will be eligible to bid for RFCS funding until that date.</p><p> </p><p>In
the event the UK leaves the EU without an overall withdrawal agreement, the Government
will guarantee the payment of awards for UK organisations which successfully bid directly
to EU programmes, including RFCS, until the end of 2020, for the whole lifetime of
projects agreed.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond 2020, the UK government is considering options
for supporting R&D in steel and will continue to work with the sector, unions
and Devolved Administrations to develop a long-term viable solution for the UK steel
industry.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will decide on science and innovation expenditure,
including on R&D for steel, in the next Spending Review. Science and innovation
have been made a priority by the UK Government and is at the heart of the Department’s
Industrial Strategy, in recognition of the strong economic benefits of public investment
in science and innovation and its capacity to leverage private investment.</p>
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