Earlier this week, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) released their future vision for research and innovation and how it can meet the economic, social and civic needs in Wales and beyond.
Given that knowledge, both its discovery and commercialisation, is critical to the development of modern economies around the World, the aim of this new strategy is to ensure that Wales has an excellent research base within Welsh universities, especially in terms of one that supports innovation that boosts productivity in Welsh businesses.
From this, it can help deliver economic prosperity and social wellbeing for the people of Wales and make a vital contribution to increasing the proportion of UK GDP spent on research and development every year. It is also critical that whilst the research base be global in perspective, it will respond to challenges specific to the local region and engage with local communities to create new solutions.
Of course, it is easy to argue that with only eight universities (plus the Open University) and a small population, Wales does not have the capability to make any real impact in research. However, the relative size of the nation has its strength, especially in terms of the ability to collaborate effectively across all part of economic and civic life.
Research in Welsh universities is also of a higher quality than many would expect, with three quarters of this work rated as either world-leading or internationally excellent. Wales’ share of the top one per cent of the highest cited papers globally is over twice that expected based on its overall publication share, even exceeding England with its stronger university base. More importantly, over half of Welsh university research was judged to be world-leading in terms of its reach and significance on the economy or wider society.
However, there remain a number of challenges to ensure that this record is maintained. The first is to ensure that we have the research talent in place for the future, especially as it is estimated that have a shortfall of around 600 science and technology researchers as compared to the rest of the UK. Wales also needs to ensure, despite various funded programmes to encourage greater collaboration, that its SMEs are able to maximise their potential for research and innovation, especially by working closely with universities.
Finally, it is critical that when European funding - which has supported the links between Welsh academia and industry since 2000 - is eventually replaced by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, then Wales makes a strong case to continue the level of support it has previously enjoyed.
But there are also many opportunities which Wales must focus on over the next few years to improve its research and innovation base. The main opportunity is to ensure that we get our fair share of additional investment from the UK Government’s £4.7 billion a year for the UK Industrial Strategy. To do this, there must be support put in place by the Welsh Government to ensure that Welsh universities have the resources to compete effectively for this money against institutions in other parts of the UK.
Alternatively, as some of us have suggested over the last few years, all research and innovation funding should be devolved to Wales and this should now be explored in further detail by the Welsh Government especially given the changing state of devolution across the UK. This would potentially bring in tens of millions of pounds of additional funding to support the research strengths in our economy. Indeed, Welsh universities could ensure that this new research funding is used to transform Welsh productivity through greater collaboration between universities with industry enhancing innovation and entrepreneurship
Given this, I believe the real opportunity for Wales is to ensure that its business community (especially its SME base) engages more fully with the university sector to drive forward greater innovation across the nation.
With some studies suggesting that as little as three per cent of innovation within businesses is sourced from the university sector, it could be an easy win for Welsh higher education if it could focus its efforts on collaborating more closely with local firms either in sourcing new ideas and technology or, more relevantly, in exploiting the intellectual property they develop through licensing arrangements.
Some of the best research universities in the world - such as Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - have developed programmes where the transfer of technology to businesses is encouraged.
Could we do the same in Wales, potentially by creating a collaborative gateway where the collective intellectual property assets of the sector are managed and marketed by a single Office for Technology Licencing for the benefit of individual institutions?
Certainly, if Wales is producing world class research that is impactful then there is no reason why that should not be commercialised by some of the excellent businesses across Wales to create competitive advantage for the economy as a whole.