1. What support does the Welsh Government provide for research and innovation? OQ59673

Llywydd, support available for research and innovation includes £10 million to strengthen our scientific research base, £30 million announced last week to improve innovation, so that Welsh organisations can grow, improve health and well-being, and help address our climate and nature emergencies. And all this is in addition to quality-related research funding for universities.

Thank you for that response, First Minister. 

According to UK Research and Innovation's most recently published figures, Research Councils UK and Innovate UK spent upwards of £5.2 billion across the UK in 2020-21. Only £126 million of that was spent in Wales. This was down from the 2018-19 figure, which showed that, of the £5.4 billion spent across the UK, that year, Wales received £131 million. So, as well as the loss of access to EU funds, Welsh universities are being forced to compete for a shrinking pot of UKRI funding against better funded UK institutions. In 2018, Professor Graeme Reid published the findings of his independent review into Welsh Government's RD&I spending. The Welsh Government accepted the review's recommendations, but has, to this day, still not implemented them in full. So, in light of the dire backdrop against which Welsh institutions are facing and surviving, will the Welsh Government implement the recommendations in full, updated for the current economic and research landscape?

Well, Llywydd, the most important point the Member made in relation to the Reid review is the very last point he made, because, in many ways, the key recommendations of the Reid review have been overtaken by changes in the research landscape that have happened since the report was published. And those are significant changes, and an updating of the Reid report would be necessary before any implementation plan could be confirmed. 

Of course, I agree with the points that Luke Fletcher has made. It is for UKRI to demonstrate that the initials 'UK' mean something in its title. The funds that it has at its disposal—and they are significant—need to be spent in all parts of the United Kingdom, matching the very many strengths that are to be found in research institutions in all parts of the UK. Now, UKRI has itself a target of increasing the share of funding spent outside the golden halo of the south-east of England. And we work with our institutions here in Wales to make sure that they are as well placed as possible to compete for that UK level of research funding. We support, of course, universities ourselves—£82 million in QR funding to universities, £15 million above that in the research Wales innovation fund. But, with a UK Government that has recentralised money to the centre, changed the rules of research funding across the United Kingdom, it is for them to demonstrate that they are serious about investing in the research capacity of institutions in all parts of the United Kingdom. 

I thank Luke Fletcher for tabling this question, and just to build on the point I think he was making, if Wales and Welsh universities are to feel the true benefits that we know research and innovation can bring, our institutions need additional support from the Welsh Government to achieve external investment and win those competitive funding bids. And Wales simply isn't achieving its potential when it comes to medical research in particular. According to the Office for National Statistics, out of the 12 nations and regions of the UK, Wales has proportionately the lowest expenditure on R&D. We spend 2 per cent of the UK total, despite the fact we have 5 per cent of the population. Wales also only wins 3 per cent of competitive funding. Shouldn't we be winning at least 5 per cent of it? 

Now, the British Heart Foundation recently found that,  for every £1 million spent on medical research by charities, it supports £2.3 million in output and £1.47 million in gross value added. So, First Minister, will you commit to working with the higher education sector, and the third sector, and organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, to ensure that Wales wins, at the very least, its population share of medical research funding in the UK?

Well, Llywydd, the words of the Conservative Member will ring hollow in the ears of higher education institutions and, indeed, third sector organisations in Wales because they will know that, as a result of decisions that his party has made, £380 million that we were able to invest in research and in higher education in Wales in the last round of European funding now disappears entirely from Wales, placing 1,000 jobs in the research sector at risk. It is rich for Conservative Members to stand up here, demanding that the Welsh Government should spend more of our resources, when his Government denies those resources to Wales, with the results that we see. And that's not my view—that's not my view; those are the warnings of higher education institutions here in Wales. And while we will work with HE institutions in Wales to compete more successfully for those funds available at the UK level, let there be no doubt at all, Llywydd, that Wales itself is being starved of the funding that has supported that sector in the past by the deliberate decision of the Conservative Government in London.

With permission, Llywydd, can I extend a warm welcome to Broughton Primary School, who are here in the Senedd with us today?

First Minister, we are incredibly proud in Alyn and Deeside to lead the way in research and innovation, and be home to the Welsh Government-backed advanced manufacturing research centre in Broughton. Do you agree with me, First Minister, that the next step in Cymru's innovation journey is the establishment of an advanced technology research centre in Sealand?

Llywydd, it's great to see those young people from Broughton here, having made the journey down to south Wales, and they'll have been pleased to hear their local Member asking a question on the floor of the Senedd this afternoon.

I've been very proud, Llywydd, to have visited the advanced manufacturing research centre and to have been there with Jack Sargeant on a number of occasions. And he's right to draw attention to the plans for the advanced technology research centre in Sealand. We are making some progress in our negotiations with the UK Government over that plan. The critical emerging technologies that will be taken forward when that centre is established have now been agreed—three priority areas: cyber-security, software engineering, and radio frequency technologies. I welcome the fact that, in the autumn statement, the UK Government committed £10 million to taking that plan forward. Since then, Llywydd, it has been a bit of a struggle to extract from the UK Government a sense of the terms on which that funding will be drawn down, the timescales against which that funding is to be made available, and even which department is in charge of making those decisions. Is it the Ministry of Defence, which is meant to be the lead department, or is it in fact the Treasury, who are holding the purse strings? So, while the prospect of the Sealand centre is exciting, we are committed to it, I hope the UK Government is as committed as they were in the autumn, and, if they are, then they need to speed up the decision making so that we can get on and make that centre a reality.