Recommendation 10

We visited the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2025 and were greatly impressed not only by the work being carried out there to push back the boundaries of human knowledge, but by the scope and depth of the international collaboration it involves. We hoped in this report to celebrate the appointment of the first British head of CERN for three decades as a major win for science diplomacy, particularly after the UK’s exit from the EU. Unfortunately, this success has been overshadowed by events. Marking the beginning of the director general’s term by abruptly pulling promised funding from a planned upgrade at CERN—threatening the project’s future—displays a fundamental lack of joined-up thinking and potentially jeopardises the UK’s relationship with the EU on issues of science and innovation. The hasty and abrupt way the decision was communicated compounds the damage to the UK’s standing with its international partners. (Conclusion, Paragraph 51) Sovereignty