26th June 2008
Go West
Just asked a question about Wales at “innovation, universities and skills” questions in Parliament which always confuses the Minister. But IUS as far as Wales is concerned is only partially devolved. I asked the Minister about the ’science gap’ in the UK with Wales having, per capita, less than half the number of scientists and engineers wworking in world-class university departments as England and less than a third of the comparable figure for Scotland. I didn’t get much of a reply but it’s vitally important we keep the pressure up as Wales gets a raw deal from the Government on Research Council funding, Government Research Establishment work, direct Government-funded R&D and much else besides. This has a huge knock-on effect on our economic performance as study after study has shown.
Where we are doing better is collaborative research with industry. Swansea University is powering ahead and was recently ranked third among all UK universities for private sector research income driven in large part by its world class Institute for Life Sciences. The exciting proposal for a new business-facing ‘innovation campus’ offers a great opportunity for Wales to create the National Science Academy envisaged in the One Wales Agreement. The university is already thinking of a formal link-up with Bangor University so Wales could follow the Danish Technological Institutes’s model of a twin-campus Academy with a base in the north and a base in the south. Though, for me, West is Best and the Academy has to be based in Carmarthenshire at Llanelli’s Delta Lakes development. Imagine the transformational effect this could have on the economy of this part of Wales.
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