Part of 2. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:48 pm on 15 January 2019.
I welcome those comments in response to Professor Graeme Reid's report, which was a little while ago—not too long ago. He said in that report that he encountered
'long-standing structural weaknesses in the research and innovation ecosystem that put Wales at a disadvantage compared with other parts of the UK in funding competitions.'
And he pointed to the fact that that had been somewhat
'masked by the availability of EU structural funds,' as he said,
'whose future remains unclear.'
So, I wonder if the First Minister could give us some further reflections of his, now that a little time has passed on Professor Reid's recommendations. He made three recommendations. Is there more, either in response to those recommendations or something separate, that we can do to enhance our ability to access UK Research and Innovation funds or other sources of funding to establish our research base, which, actually, does quite well in what it's done, but, as that point said, it's masked somewhat by accessing European funds?