University research needs to be funded

WE SHOULD all be extremely worried by the fact Wales is currently the worst performing country in the UK when it comes to funding original university research.

If our nation is to prosper in the future, it will need to marshal all the resources available to it towards that end.

In recent years we have come to accept we can no longer rely on direct investment from overseas to create the momentum our economy needs. Instead, it’s homegrown businesses that need to be nurtured – and inevitably that means drawing on the expertise available to us in our universities.

As things stand, however, we are not well placed to do that.

Professor Richard Wyn Jones is right to deliver a wake-up call to the Welsh Government, which has sat by as Scotland and England have forged ahead with additional research funding. In 2018, as Prof Jones points out, the Reid Review identified the need for Wales to invest more in university research.

It’s highly regrettable that the recommendations made by the review have not been implemented in full.

The Welsh Government rightly points out that it has put in place financial support for students from low-income families.

Yet important though that may be, it has no bearing on the shortage of funds for original research at the universities attended by the students it is supporting.

Research undertaken at universities can result in the development of new products and services that can be spun out to help the local economy. But in a more general way it can increase the prestige of the university where the research is carried out, attracting high-calibre academics and talented students who between them create a virtuous circle that ultimately benefits the local community and Wales as a whole.

The Welsh Government should accept the criticism it has received as justified, and commit itself to increasing the level of investment in research.

Higher education doesn’t get the attention it deserves from politicians, who are far more likely to be preoccupied with issues like the school curriculum.

Yet unless we take seriously the need to fund original research, Wales’ chance of developing a dynamic economy that provides highly skilled and well-paid jobs will be lost. The concerns articulated by Prof Jones must be heeded and acted upon as a matter of urgency.