The medical research landscape is broad, from funding pre-clinical laboratory research to the more applied clinical research that takes place in the NHS. My responsibilities are focused on more applied medical research, which I think makes a vital contribution to treatment, development and evaluation, service organisation and delivery, and, crucially, outcomes for patients. I'm aware of the work of the cross-party group on medical research, which I know, Russell, you chair, and I'm looking forward very much to seeing your new report, because I know that the recommendations in previous reports have been very useful to us. 

As Minister for Health and Social Services, the funding I provide through Health and Care Research Wales makes a huge difference to the medical research landscape. I'm pleased to say that, last year, I agreed an additional recurring £5 million increase to the Health and Care Research Wales budget. This will be used to support the implementation of the Wales cancer research strategy, to create a new adult social care research centre, and to fund an evidence centre that will identify and answer questions of urgent importance to policy and practice. It will also be used to offer new personal award schemes to support capacity building in the NHS and social care sectors, which will enhance our commissioned research programme and support new models for clinical research delivery. This new investment complements the £42 million we spend annually on our Wales-wide health and care research infrastructure, which includes funding for the NHS research workforce, our research centres and units, our research funding schemes, and our partnership working.

But everyone understands the challenges of the current financial environment. I'm afraid that the situation is being exacerbated by the UK Government's approach to the UK shared prosperity fund, which replaces EU funding, which means Wales as a whole is worse off, coupled of course with the uncertainty over future access to the EU funding programme Horizon Europe. I am concerned that delays in associating with the Horizon programme, if we ever do so, are also compromising our international research collaborations on medical research. In many ways, the financial climate underlines the importance of collaboration. 

We do collaborate and have partnerships with many organisations. For example, we're a part of the Medical Research Council-administered Health Data Research UK initative, and the UK Prevention Research Partnership, all of which are cross-fund alliances. We co-fund the Cardiff Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre with Cancer Research UK, which enables patient access to early stage clinical trials, and translation of scientific discoveries into new cancer treatments. We have active partnerships that fund specific research programmes with the Scar Free Foundation and Fight for Sight. We participate in a range of UK research funding programmes run by the National Institute for Health and Care Research in England, which provides Welsh researchers with access to large multimillion-pound funding streams across the health research spectrum.

We can't, however, achieve success without having a nurturing research environment for health and social care professionals. Staff who are evidence driven are more likely to use innovation and improvement to develop ways of working that drive change, transformation and patient benefit. Research careers are therefore highly rewarding, and organisations that are research-active have a stronger ability to attract the best staff and retain them. And that's why, last year, Health and Care Research Wales, Social Care Wales and Health Education and Improvement Wales initiated a joint review of research career and training pathways, which set out recommendations in the 'Making research careers work: a review of career pathways in health and social care' report. 

We have right here in Wales new treatment options through participation in research, which can be especially important for conditions where all other options have been exhausted. There are over 500 studies taking place in the Welsh NHS that are currently accessible to our population, covering conditions such as motor neurone disease, long COVID, asthma, cancer and diabetes. We're also seeing huge advancements in areas such as genomics, brain imaging and advanced therapies, which are key to discovering future treatments. But we all recognise that NHS services are under unprecedented pressures and undertaking research is challenging. We've seen the impact of the pandemic, coupled with workforce pressures, having a real effect on the research capacity in the NHS. Investing in our dedicated research delivery workforce and awarding NHS research time awards through the faculty has, therefore, never been more important. 

Later this spring, a refreshed NHS research and development framework, which has been co-produced with the NHS, will be published, outlining what a high-performing, research-active NHS organisation looks like, and we also need to capitalise on our strengths in health data, creating a new digital infrastructure, to make study delivery faster and more efficient.

Before I sum up, I want to focus on the real difference that research can make to the lives of people, patients and communities. We've seen, particularly at the height of the pandemic, how crucial good research is in helping to deliver patient care, treatment and, of course, vaccines. Wales is leading in areas of research development, which has a real impact not only on Welsh patients, but across the UK.