But, Dirprwy Lywydd, would we need to spend as much on these measures if Wales were free of this unfair and unequal union of nations? Plaid Cymru has been raising concerns about the impact of underinvestment in research and development in Wales for some time, and we heard about that from Mike Hedges. It's disappointing, therefore, to note that this budget, once again, doesn't do much to tackle this deficit. Research and innovation are at the heart of the prosperity of our nation, now and for the future, enabling the crucial work in our universities to have a positive impact on the lives of the citizens of Wales and, indeed, the citizens of the world.

Over the past decade, Wales has had the lowest level of research and development expenditure as a percentage of its gross value added in all of the nations of the UK. A key factor in this is the comparative lack of quality-related, or QR, funding from the Welsh Government to pay for those things that other grants don't include, which then puts at risk the ability of Welsh universities to compete for the research and innovation funding available to them, and the figures demonstrate this clearly.

QR funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales for 2022-23 is £81.7 million, as compared to £1.789 billion allocated by Reserach England for QR funding in the same year. For universities to be able to compete pro rata with England, QR funding should be around £100 million. Universities are suffering from a deficit of £18 million in funding for key infrastructure. It's not a huge amount, but without action from the Welsh Government we will continue to see Wales fall behind as compared to the rest of the UK—something that actually creates problems for our prosperity as a nation and will be detrimental to universities.

It is an important issue and an urgent issue, because EU structural funds have, of course, played a crucial role in research capacity in Wales, and Wales's access to that funding, and what mitigated the impact of underinvestment from domestic sources in the past is about to come to an end. Its impact is already being felt—1,000 researchers facing redundancy, many of them already losing their jobs and many of them having already been forced to leave Wales, taking their expertise with them, even though we heard from the Government just last week how crucial innovation is to Wales.

There was some hope, as a result of the Windsor framework, that discussions could commence as a result of the UK's participation in the Horizon programme, but press reports on the weekend have suggested that Rishi Sunak and his Government in Westminster are doubtful about the value of the programme and the cost of being involved, which makes taking action on the lack of investment by the Welsh Government even more critical. 

Alongside this, the total higher education budget will reduce as a result of this budget to £198.653 million in 2023-24, down from £203.513 million in the 2022-23 budget, a development that causes concern, particularly in light of the fact that many vice-chancellors in Wales, including the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, have stated recently that Welsh universities face an unsustainable financial situation, which is intensified by increasing energy costs and inflation. I would, therefore, like to note our disappointment that research and development and the universities sector aren't adequately supported in this budget, and to draw the Welsh Government's attention to the fact that the current situation in terms of our post-Brexit scenario, the level of inflation, the state of the economy and the cost-of-living crisis are even more reason for them to take action to maintain the sector and the research and development work that is such an important foundation for the prosperity of our nation and our contribution globally.