5. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's plans to implement the recommendations of the Reid Review? OAQ54918

The Reid review recommendations were accepted in principle by the Welsh Government in 2018 and, since that time, I have been taking forward actions in support of these recommendations with Ministers and officials from across the Government.

In the evidence that the Minister gave to the Children, Young People and Education Committee last week, she made a clear budgetary commitment to meeting £15 million of spending towards implementing in particular recommendation 2 of the Reid review. But the Reid review recommendation 2 was an additional £30 million a year to incentivise researchers to win greater funding from business and from outside Wales. I've no doubt that the Minister is committed to meeting in principle the recommendations of the Reid review, but the figure that she has outlined is £15 million short. And what she said in response to questioning was that the Welsh Government is funding this research in a variety of different reviews almost Byzantine in their complexity. The money is out there somewhere, but it's very complex to audit it beyond the £15 million she's committed. Yet, the third recommendation of the Reid review is a single overarching brand for its research and innovation funding to increase visibility and coherence. So, with that in mind, can she provide a more detailed explanation of where the money will come from? And if she can't do that today, will she commit to providing that explanation as quickly as possible and, if possible, make a statement to the Chamber around that, and work with her ministerial colleagues to deliver the coherence that the Reid review has recommended?

The Member is absolutely right, Presiding Officer: we are investing some £15 million in an innovation and engagement fund. That was a fund that was abolished or stopped back in 2014 because of the pressure that was on the Welsh Government budget at that time, and I'm delighted that we've been able to get back into funding that provision. On top of that, we are making allocations to quality research funding to HEFCW in line with the recommendations in both Reid and the Diamond report. But funding for research and innovation is spread across a number of portfolios: mine, the portfolio of Ken Skates, and the portfolio of Vaughan Gething. So, in its totality, the Welsh Government is spending significant amounts of money on research, on innovation across the piece. It can be complex and that's why this work is being undertaken by officials, to be able to have a better understanding of the resources that are available.

But I have to say to the Member, our ability to fund universities in this way is severely under threat because of the lack of clarity under the shared prosperity fund. Much of the resources that have funded the Sêr Cymru programme, the KES programme at Bangor University—these programmes have been funded by money from European structural funds, and the inability to have clarity on that and the inability to be able to have Welsh Government direct that funding is a real threat. And that's why Universities Wales is supporting the Welsh Government in its call for clarity to the Westminster Government on the ability to have the replacement structural funds, and for those funds to be managed here, quite rightly, by this Government, and scrutinised by this Parliament.