SUMMARY OF CST MEETING ON 18/19 September 2007
Attendees
1. The meeting, held in Cardiff, was chaired in part by Professor Janet Finch and in part by Sir David King. The other members present were:
Professor Sir John Beringer, Professor Geoffrey Boulton, Professor Peter Davies, Professor Alan Gilbert, Professor Wendy Hall, Dr Sue Ion, Sir Keith Peters, Dr Raj Rajagopal, Dr Philip Ruffles, Professor Michael Sterling, Professor Kathy Sykes and Dr Mark Walport
CST was also joined for dinner by: Rhodri Morgan (First Minister of Wales), Professor Peter Blood Deputy VC Cardiff University), Alan Davies (Consultant, EADS Defence and Security Systems), Professor Richard Davies (VC Swansea University), Simon Gibson (Chief Executive, Wesley Clover), Professor Philip Gummett (Chief Executive, HEFCW), Dr Drew Nelson (Chief Executive, IQE plc), Sir Jon Shortridge (Permanent Secretary, Welsh Assembly Government)
Apologies were received from Professor Alan Hughes and Dr Hermann Hauser
2. Also in attendance for parts of the meeting were: Richard Rossington and Dr
Alastair Davies (Both Welsh Assembly Government).
Conclusions
Creating a science-led economy in Wales - This theme ran through this particular meeting. The objective was to consider how to create a science-led economy in Wales, and what the roles of Government, Higher Education and the private sector were. To assist with this CST was given presentations from officials within the Government, Higher Education and the business sector, with three themes emerging from the presentations
- Timescales - the need to balance short term and long term, for investment and policy making. Investment in the University research base is vital for long-term but results will not be seen overnight.
- Critical Mass - How can Wales achieve critical mass in the areas it has prioritised?
- People Dimension - Has Wales got the right combination of ideas, people and markets? Not solely related to Wales - how does any economy crack this dimension?
These themes were fed into the dinner discussion with the First Minister
Dinner with First Minister of Wales
This provided CST with an opportunity to discuss the themes above and other issues with the First Minister, who CST were delighted could attend the dinner.
Points raised in discussion included:
- Achieving technology transfer is a big challenge in Wales (and elsewhere). WAG have all the right things in place but it is difficult to measure success. For small countries such as Wales is it realistic to try and be world class at everything. Targeting specific areas may be the way forward.
- The "border" question was raised and there was debate as to whether this was a good or bad thing. Whereas the marketing of Wales in itself is a good thing and the policies that the WAG are putting in place are welcomed, it would be unwise to allow the physical boundaries of Wales to inhibit further progress. Large Universities such as Bristol and Bath are a small distance from Wales - opportunities to collaborate should not be missed just because they are not within Wales.
- Ambition to go for larger prizes must be maintained along with the quest for high-level Government and/or multi-national investment. An example of this is the Institute of Life Science (ILS) at Swansea University which represents a quantum leap in the development of Wales' knowledge economy. The achievement in attracting ILS to Wales should be seen as a starting point not an end game.
- The right people are needed before the right technology. Universities need to give good incentives to attract the right sort of people to their institution. If salaries cannot be matched IP type incentives could be offered.
Other items discussed included:
- CST visited the @Wales Digital Media Initiative, specialist business accelerator. This provided CST with an opportunity to hear the experiences of actual companies and academics 'at the coal face' following previous discussions on creating a science-led economy in Wales.
The next CST meeting will be on 12/13 December 2007.