diff --git a/beacon_node/lighthouse_network/src/service/mod.rs b/beacon_node/lighthouse_network/src/service/mod.rs
index 649526fba18..fb92550b70f 100644
--- a/beacon_node/lighthouse_network/src/service/mod.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/lighthouse_network/src/service/mod.rs
@@ -606,7 +606,7 @@ impl<AppReqId: ReqId, TSpec: EthSpec> Network<AppReqId, TSpec> {
     }
 
     /// Returns a scoring parameters for a topic if existent.
-    pub fn get_topic_params(&self, _topic: GossipTopic) -> Option<TopicScoreParams> {
+    pub fn get_topic_params(&self, _topic: GossipTopic) -> Option<&TopicScoreParams> {
         // See https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/pull/4231
         // self.swarm
         //     .behaviour()
diff --git a/beacon_node/network/src/service.rs b/beacon_node/network/src/service.rs
index e673330d92f..a55a99b8de0 100644
--- a/beacon_node/network/src/service.rs
+++ b/beacon_node/network/src/service.rs
@@ -971,7 +971,7 @@ impl<T: BeaconChainTypes> NetworkService<T> {
     fn get_topic_params(
         &self,
         topic: GossipTopic,
-    ) -> Option<lighthouse_network::libp2p::gossipsub::TopicScoreParams> {
+    ) -> Option<&lighthouse_network::libp2p::gossipsub::TopicScoreParams> {
         self.libp2p.get_topic_params(topic)
     }
 }