The government will today urge British universities, research institutions and businesses to claim a big share of European funding for scientific research.
In previous rounds of the European Union's research and development (R&D) framework programme, Britain has been the second largest recipient after Germany.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is hoping to maintain this position with an event today that will encourage British bids as the seventh framework programme gets underway.
Scientific research is one of the government's top priorities as it seeks to maintain the UK's economic position.
Malcolm Wicks, the science and innovation minister, said the framework programme could help boost British science at a time when the country faced increased global competition.
"UK is good at science," he said. "We have an envied record in research and have long been a key player in the framework programme.
"We need to maintain our strong position in the face of increasing international competition for the best researchers and research investments."
In the last framework programme, Britain picked up 14.5 per cent of the overall funding.
The government knows that R&D is crucial to the knowledge economy, which will enable the UK to compete with the likes of China, India and Brazil, where wage costs are much lower.
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