This is especially the case in smaller countries such in Israel, Finland and Sweden which not only have some of the highest proportionate levels of R&D spending in the world, but are also classed the most competitive nations globally.
Whilst levels of private sector funding into R&D is clearly important, government support is also vital especially in less competitive regions such as Wales.
There is much debate about increased Welsh devolution with the new Wales Act promising increased powers in terms of areas such as income taxation in the hope that this may stimulate greater entrepreneurship and wealth creation if reduced. However, some believe that there should also be changes to the way that UK government funding for research and innovation is managed, especially as it is yet to be devolved since 1999.
All funding for university research is managed by the Research Council (RCUK) and is distributed competitively across higher education in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.
On the surface, this seems equitable and fair and that it is up to Welsh universities to compete with the rest of the sector for this funding. But as the Learned Society for Wales has pointed out, years of underinvestment has resulted in proportionally less research income, especially from the high-spending science and medical research councils.
Most of this has gone to research universities in England and Scotland which, with higher levels of funding and greater investment in staff and infrastructure, have inevitably been in pole position for any future funds.
So what effect has this current arrangement had on Wales?
Data from RCUK shows that it has distributed £504 million since 2005-6. Yet if this money been ‘Barnetised’ (i.e. distributed according to head of population as with most other UK Government funding to Wales), then Welsh universities should have received over £1 billion over this period for research activities.
It means that if funding from RCUK had been devolved, then there would have been an additional £577 million for research within Welsh universities during the last decade. More significantly, the biggest shortfalls are to be found in medicine, engineering and physical sciences research, which are critical for developing innovation in the future. Just imagine what this amount of funding could have done for the research and innovation capacity of Wales.
Despite this, some have suggested that Wales remains better off as part of the UK’s research system but the fact remain that we have been underfunded for years.
Whilst initiatives such as Ser Cymru – which provides funding to attract leading international scientific talent to prestigious new research chairs at Welsh universities – are to be welcomed, it does not make up for the long term research funding that has been lost to this nation.
Having had this debate with a number of Vice Chancellors when I was a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) research committee, I know there is a reluctance to break away from the UK’s research system. Yet with seemingly little improvement in funding during the last few years relative to the rest of the UK, should there be a Welsh Research Council created which would manage funding for research?
It could be argued that such a body would be too small to have an impact but having worked closely with the Irish Research Council for the last five years, I have seen at first hand the results it delivers that are disproportionate to its size.
Yes, there are world class Irish universities such as University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin but Wales also has global leaders in a range of subjects across our university sector.
Indeed, as the recent Research Excellence Framework exercise (which measures higher education research performance) has shown, we have enormously talented academics here in Wales but they need better funding support, especially in those areas that are relevant to the development of the nation.
There is much talk about more powers for Wales but it would seem that the current settlement in a number of key areas remains unfair to Welsh economic prospects. As the majority of our politicians want greater devolution for Wales to help develop the economy, it is surprising that there haven’t been greater calls for the devolution of research funding to Wales.
At the very least, there should be an independent feasibility study commissioned to examine whether this is possible and, more importantly, how this additional resource of tens of millions of pounds annually could benefit our universities, economy and society in the future.