Wales' universities take innovation cash fears to Westminster

A shake-up in research and innovation funding could affect the "economy of the future", according to a university vice-chancellor.

Welsh university bosses travel to Westminster on Wednesday to tell MPs that replacement European funding post-Brexit needs an "imaginative approach".

The UK government said its UK Shared Prosperity Fund would match EU funding.

But some academics are concerned funding could focus more on teaching and less on research and development.

Prof Colin Riordan, president and vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, has warned that without guaranteeing innovation funding, future developments of things such as electronic devices could be affected.

According to Universities Wales, between 2014 and 2020, about £370m was invested into university-related projects in Wales through EU social and development funds.

About 60 large-scale, multi-partner research projects in Wales rely on that funding, which is due to end this year.

Prof Riordan and the vice-chancellors of three other universities will give evidence to Welsh Affairs Select Committee about their research funding concerns.

He told BBC Radio Wales Sunday Supplement there was a "fundamental misunderstanding of the way that research and innovation works".

"It's not about funding universities, it's about funding innovation," he said.

"There's a gap between the fundamental scientific research that universities do and that professors do in labs and the actual products that come out the other end - your iPhones and newer products, battery technology, self-driving cars.

"What the funding is required for is to fill that gap, so it does need a more imaginative approach."

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has previously said that the Shared Prosperity Fund would "match EU funding and give local places control of how money is spent, remove unnecessary bureaucracy, and enable local communities to invest in the priorities that matter to them".

Prof Riordan will leave his role with Cardiff University later this year after 10 years.

He said that meant the UK government would "transfer money to local authorities for local support for business, for community groups".

He said some of that funding should be earmarked for research and development by working regionally rather than locally and including universities.

"We'd like to see the criteria for funding changed in that way," he added.

Vice chancellors from Swansea University, Bangor University and Aberystwyth University will also attend Wednesday's hearing with MPs.

They will also discuss the potential "brain drain" of Welsh graduates moving elsewhere in the UK for work and whether universities have become too dependent on fees from international students.