Science Research Funding in Universities (Science and Technology Committee Report)

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Wednesday 9th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I declare my interests as I hold an honorary professorship at Cardiff University and chair the board of Cardiff Metropolitan University, which has climbed 41 places in this year’s Guardian University Guide and was the highest-ranked post-1992 university in the 2014 REF. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Patel on his introduction to this important debate on his report.

International student income has supported research intensive institutions, but Covid-19 puts this at great risk. Tuition fees are essential. Cuts will decrease research activity and student exposure to it. Understanding how to experiment and innovate will be the driver of economic survival for the UK.

The Government’s proposed UK advanced research projects agency could bolster responsive investigations, promote interdisciplinary high-quality research in higher risk novel lines of inquiry and boost impact through its non-bureaucratic programme approach. To support the Government’s levelling-up agenda, demonstrate UK commitment and avoid culture capture, Cardiff could welcome hosting the agency.

Quality-related research—QR—funding is essential in developing and sustaining research and innovation centres. Examples at Cardiff Met, a small post-1992 university, include the food industry centre and the product design research centre, designing from concept to production. In Russell group universities such as Cardiff, QR funding sustains infrastructure, particularly as UK Research and Innovation funding of university research has gradually decreased relative to full economic costs over recent years, so QR funding must be maintained and increased.

Brexit means that we now need a domestic alternative to Horizon Europe, the ERC, Marie Curie and other funds. Can the Minister assure us that the new discovery fund is intended to replace these sources in the event of no deal, with no time gap between when European funding ends and domestic replacement starts in the event of a no-deal Brexit? Can he also confirm that the UK shared prosperity fund will match in real terms the EU and UK funding streams it replaces and be allocated to narrow prosperity differences across the UK, not only in England, with framework-agreed guidelines that ensure the devolved nations can target areas of strength in university research?

Cardiff has strong regional collaborations: the GW4 Alliance, with its unique assets, the data innovation accelerator, using data assets, and the world’s first semiconductor cluster in CSconnected. Cardiff University’s ambitious “moonshot” approach in translational neuroscience brings together research strengths in genetics, genomics and brain research imaging. The net-zero regional collaboration aims at swift socioeconomic transformations, R&D growth and increasing business investment. Major projects include stability of the national grid, the built environment and equitable energy systems, yet these will all slip if we are left behind in new government funding sources.

After the hit of Covid, which decimated charity research funding, we must focus on rebuilding the economy and reshaping society through five key priority areas: developing a new approach to deliver place- based economic growth; turbocharging investment in fundamental research; launching strategic science-based missions for high-risk, high-return; strengthening the high-level skills talent pipeline; and maximising opportunities for global collaboration. To achieve any of this means heeding not only the recommendations of the Science and Technology Committee, but also noble Lords’ comments today.