The UK authorities have temporarily suspended the payment of all grants for joint Russian-British research projects. Payments for 50 grants worth several tens of millions of pounds will be temporarily suspended. Funding will be discontinued until further clarification from the British authorities. This was reported by the Financial Times.
According to the publication, the United Kingdom’s state agency for research and innovation (UK Research and Innovation) notified project managers of its decision this week.
“As we await further government advice, we are suspending all grant payments with potential Russian partners in order to obtain additional information,” reads a document that the research agency mailed to project leaders.
The UK Office for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is expected to make new recommendations in the coming days regarding the cooperation of British universities with Russian scientists.
The projects for which funding was suspended relate to a wide variety of scientific fields: in particular, research in the field of thermonuclear fusion, planetary science, animal genetics and hydrology. As the newspaper notes, the Russian side’s financial investment in most projects is small, mainly Russia’s contribution focuses on scientific expertise and the provision of equipment.
The heads of several joint projects from British universities told the publication that due to the current situation they were forced to stop formal cooperation with their Russian colleagues, but they plan to maintain relations with them “on a personal level”.
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