11. Short Debate: Funding Wales's future: Investing in universities to drive economic growth

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:24 pm on 26 October 2022.

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Photo of James Evans James Evans Conservative 6:24, 26 October 2022

I’d like to thank Tom Giffard for giving me a minute of his time two minutes before this debate was about to start. [Laughter.] Research funding is vital to solving some of the major problems we do have in the world, and, as colleagues in this Chamber sat through the recent Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill, it was evident through evidence taking that there was a focus from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and others that the setting up of the new commission might not focus enough of its time and resource on research. So, I'd like to ask the Minister a direct question that he might want to answer. I'd like to know what discussions you have had with HEFCW and Welsh Government officials around the setting up of the new commission, and what focus and funding they're going to put in place for medical research, because that is going to be vital if we're going to solve some of the problems that we have in the world today.