GW4 welcomes the commitment in the 2024 Autumn Budget to support R&D with investment rising to record levels of £20.4bn in 25/26, an increasing budget for DSIT of £13.9bn and the launch of a Missions Fund.
Whilst we await the detail, we are relieved that initial indications are that the government has listened the sector and protected core R&D funding as set out in CaSE’s open letter ahead of the budget. We also welcome the £1.8bn commitment to the expansion of government funded childcare, but urge the government to go further on improving the accessibility of government-backed childcare support for postgraduate students.
The South West England and South Wales region is uniquely placed to support the UK Government’s growth agenda and boost economic growth. The GW4 universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter contribute substantially to the global knowledge economy with a combined annual research income of over £465 million and a £2.4 billion annual turnover. Our universities employ over 13,000 academic staff and educate over 33,000 postgraduate and 82,000 undergraduate students.
Industrial Strategy
We particularly welcome the recognition from the Chancellor that, if supported, R&D can drive economic growth. Several of these announcements were made to support sectors where our region and universities have particular strengths, and GW4 looks forward to understanding more how we can work with government and partners to support its wider R&D agenda.
The Budget’s commitment of £2bn of support for R&D in life sciences is to be welcomed. South West England is home to over 370 life sciences companies and employs approximately 20,000 people in the sector. The West of England sub region is the third fastest growing life sciences sector in the UK for employment. In Wales, life sciences generated £2.62 billion in turnover for 2021, the sector employs over 12,000 people and includes over 260 companies. Our universities have internationally leading strengths in population health, supported by large studies such as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, PROTECT, School Health Research Network, HealthWise Wales and DECIPHer. This means we can help identify what makes people healthy or unhealthy and use this to design better health policies and interventions. We are especially well placed to trial new approaches to prevent chronic diseases and long-term illnesses associated with ageing and to support research in neuroscience and mental health.
GW4 also welcomed the government’s support of 11 hydrogen projects across the UK, including two in Wales in Milford Haven and Bridgend. GW4 universities were key drivers in securing £2.5 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of their Place Based Impact Acceleration Account awards (PBIAA) for the project ‘GW-SHIFT: Great Western Supercluster of Hydrogen Impact for Future Technologies’. GW4 universities, working alongside Swansea, South Wales, and Plymouth will work with 25 civic and industry partners, who have contributed over £1.5 million in additional funds and in-kind support, to maximise the enormous potential of the South West of England and South Wales hydrogen ecosystem.
We also welcome the announcement of £975 million in R&D funding for the aerospace sector over five years, and in particular we welcome the Chancellor’s recognition of the importance of this sector in the South West. We have the UK’s largest aerospace sector and 14 of the 15 largest aerospace companies. Airbus and GKN have invested $212 million in composites and advanced materials research and development. The Bath and Bristol Science Park is home to the National Composites Centre Catapult and IAPPS which form part of a world leading cluster in smart and sustainable aviation.
While no direct support has been provided to universities, we welcome that the Modern Industrial Strategy recognises universities’ roles in being drivers of innovation and local economic growth. GW4 looks forward to submitting its response to the government consultation in due course.
Childcare
While the Chancellor’s commitment of an additional £1.8bn to increase the accessibility of government-funded childcare is a step in the right direction, we would urge the government to go further, and take into account GW4’s recommendation for the government to extend its childcare support schemes to postgraduates.
Currently, students studying for Masters and PhDs are not eligible for Childcare Grants, which are in place for full-time undergraduates to help with childcare costs for children under 15 years old. They are also unable to claim the childcare benefits available to workers unless they are in substantial paid employment in addition to their studies. This means for most parents, combining postgraduate study, substantial outside work, and childcare responsibilities is not feasible. This will also impact the diversity of our innovation talent pipeline, meaning fewer people will have the skills and qualifications required for the innovative jobs our future economy will need in order to grow.
We will continue to make the case to government that this increased support is vital to ensure parents of young children are not disincentivised from upskilling or reskilling and pursuing postgraduate qualifications, and then accessing the high-skilled jobs that require these qualifications.
