A fresh Brexit row has been blown open with Brussels after Lord Frost accused the EU of being close to breaching the trade deal struck last Christmas.

He said the UK is now “getting quite concerned” about Brussels delaying ratification of the UK’s participation in the EUR80bn Horizon Europe research programme, costing British scientists their place in pan-European research programmes they traditionally dominated.

He said the UK had “not made a great deal of this” but patience was running out. “It’s not a very happy place,” he said.

“We are getting quite concerned about this actually. There is an obligation in article 710 of the trade and cooperation agreement to finalise our participation. It uses the word ‘shall’. It is an obligation.

“It would obviously be a breach of the treaty if the EU doesn’t deliver on this obligation,” he said.

The UK committed to gross funding of GBP2bn a year to the programme last December but this is not now being paid in as British scientists cannot be formal participants in the programme despite historically leading on many projects.

Earlier on Monday the House of Commons European scrutiny committee suggested the delay in ratifying this part of the trade deal was punishment for the row over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Frost said he had asked his counterpart, Maros Sefcovic, many times why there was a delay when other countries including Norway and Iceland’s membership had already been ratified. While he could “guess” the reason, he had not go an answer, he told MPs.

The science sector fought hard to retain their members of the Horizon Europe programme last year arguing that it was not just the funding but the collaboration with peers across Europe that was important.

Being part of the seven-year programme would also help the UK maintain a thriving science ecosystem supporting jobs in universities and laboratories as well as acting as a magnet for overseas talent.

One Ulster university scientist told the Guardian he was on tenterhooks over a bid for GBP7m in funding for a project on the impact of Covid on the mental health of children and adolescents.

It came as Germany’s ambassador warned Berlin will lose trust in the UK if its negotiators reject a role for the European court of justice in arbitrating the Northern Ireland protocol.

He said Germany had invested a great deal of political capital in persuading the European Commission to change its approach to the protocol and the outcome was “the maximum flexible interpretation of an agreement we have signed on the European side”.

Speaking to an Aspen Forum he said: “If those proposals will not be the basis for negotiating a working protocol but will be rejected by pointing for instance to the European court of justice, we all know on all sides that will impact the trust in the relationship very significantly”.

He said the commission has made a huge effort to cut 50% of the paperwork and 80% of the obstacles.