Swansea Bay: one very likely impact of losing this funding is a brain drain of highly skilled researchers. Losing well-paid professional job opportunities will be disastrous for regions like ours; ironically, those very areas which were previously identified as needing specific socio-economic support from the EU.
Levelling up will fail if UK Government does not protect research and innovation in Wales, writes Professor Paul Boyle, Vice-Chancellor.
The UK Government has long stated its ambitions to level up across the country. But should they fail to protect research and innovation, the impact will be a rise in inequality which will particularly disadvantage us here in Wales.
This was my message to MPs when I spoke at the Welsh Affairs Committee recently, alongside representatives of Welsh universities.
This week in Swansea we have had a salutary reminder of the considerable benefits of collaborative and ambitious research, as we hosted a team of cancer researchers who are based in Slovenia and are funded by the EU Horizon programme (the world’s largest research and innovation funding scheme). Our researchers collaborate with them to study the causes of cancer and explore new treatments.
Their visit underlines the importance of pan-European research links and of the Horizon programme. I therefore welcome the UK Government continuing their positive dialogue with the EU in relation to our future association with Horizon, and the fact that they have recently launched a considered back-up plan, in the form of the new Pioneer programme, that will be implemented if we fail to associate.
The UK Government must also now give similar consideration to replacing our other main source of EU research and innovation funding: European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). Here too, there is an urgent need to protect vital research and put in place viable and immediate alternatives.
There are 60 projects across Wales, supporting 1000 jobs, whose ESIF funding ends in 2023. As I told MPs, and have warned previously, we are approaching a cliff edge, with a very real risk of disaster not just for universities but also for innovation and our economy.
The UK Government claims that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) provides a replacement for these lost ESIF funds, but both the scale and structure of the UKSPF make it unsuitable for the task.
As a point of comparison, Swansea University received £150m from ESIF between 2014 and 2020, or roughly £25m per year. In the first round of UKSPF, despite working closely and effectively with our local authority partners, our bids total just £5.1m, of which we will be fortunate to ultimately receive a third.
The structure of UKSPF renders it unsuitable as a mechanism for large-scale research and innovation projects. Funding is allocated via individual local authorities and over short periods, making large, long-term collaborative projects impossible. At UK Government level, it is administered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which has no experience of managing research and innovation.
As I explained to MPs, one very likely impact of losing this funding is a brain drain of highly skilled researchers. Losing well-paid professional job opportunities will be disastrous for regions like ours; ironically, those very areas which were previously identified as needing specific socio-economic support from the EU. Local companies will also suffer if they can no longer access the research expertise and facilities so vital to innovation, augmenting the economic damage.
With Wales’ research infrastructure weakened, there is also a risk that funding becomes ever more concentrated on London and the south-east, thereby deepening inequalities.
I reminded MPs that EU Structural Funds were a highly effective levelling-up mechanism because they successfully targeted and supported regions like ours which had fallen behind economically.
Should UK Government persist in believing that UKSPF will protect the UK’s research and innovation sector in its current form, the impacts will be disastrous, leading to economic and social consequences that achieve the very opposite of their own stated ambitions; namely, more inequality between parts of the UK, rather than less.
It is not too late to avoid this catastrophic downward spiral.
The urgent need – as we approach the cliff edge – is for bridging funding. Just 6% of SPF funds, or £170 million, would protect all at-risk projects previously funded by ESIF in universities across the whole of the UK. It is a small price to pay to avoid disaster for our economy and our communities.
The UK Government must now act swiftly to protect research and innovation in the UK, to ensure that the EU’s impressive legacy of levelling up here in Wales is not squandered.
Article originally published in The Western Mail