Written question WQ87241

The EU has provided funding from a range of different sources. The exact figure will depend on the definition of health, the time frame and the extent to which we have access to data.

The main sources of EU funding for R&D for Health in the last 5 years in Wales have been Horizon 2020 and the European Regional Development Fund.

As expenditure is eligible on these programmes from 2014 to 2023, many projects approved before 2018 remained active after that. We have identified grants of £26 million awarded to projects primarily active in the field of health since January 2018. Since 2014, the EU has funded £60m of health projects in Wales.

In addition, many projects are not sector-specific so support health as part of a wider remit. In the 2014-20 period these broader projects included significant budgets such as £40m for the innovation strands of the Development Bank of Wales’ Business Fund, £38m for Sêr Cymru and £40 million for KESS (Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships).

These figures represent the EU grant to Welsh project leads, not the total project funding. For Horizon 2020 projects in particular, the EU programme allowed Welsh organisations to take part in projects that were much larger than the direct Welsh involvement, with access to global consortia. The total value of the projects in all fields in which Wales participated was over €2.5 billion.

Last five years, i.e. grant signed from January 2018 onwards

Approvals from 2014-2017

All approvals 2014-20

Horizon 2020

Health Theme

2,933,166

2,386,127

5,319,293

MSCA (where relevant to Health)

2,928,464

3,789,509

6,717,974

ERC (where relevant to Health)

1,642,447

6,985,408

8,627,855

FET (where relevant to Health)

1,892,470

1,862,839

3,755,309

Others (eg FTI relevant to Health)

220,716

2,918,361

3,139,077

€ Total

9,617,264

17,942,244

27,559,508

£/€1.17

8,219,884

15,335,251

23,555,135

Regional Funds

ERDF £

18,123,448

18,706,456

36,829,904

Total £

26,343,332

34,041,707

60,385,039

Since 2020, the EU’s Horizon Europe programme has been accepting and assessing applications from the UK. The successful UK participants must apply to UKRI for the funding as the UK and EU have not yet signed an association agreement. According to EU figures, Wales has 11 collaborative participations in Horizon Europe projects in the Health theme. There may be more projects relating to health in other parts of the programme such as researcher training and mobility. UKRI has published figures showing that they have issued £14.6m of grant to Welsh organisations under the UK guarantee (31 December 2022). There is insufficient detail in the UK statistics to say how much of this relates to Health.

Data correct at 26/1/23.

Sources:

• Horizon 2020/Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/horizon-dashboard

• WEFO Management Information

• UK Guarantee: https://www.ukri.org/publications/horizon-europe-guarantee-statistics/horizon-europe-guarantee-application-and-grant-offer-statistics/

Regarding consequentials for Welsh Government budgets arising from UK Government spending in England, we often do not know the value of the funding where this is provided as part of UK Spending Review settlements as the information is not provided to this level of detail and forms part of the Welsh Government’s overall settlement.

Announcements of funding in England are often met from within Whitehall department budgets existing settlements and do not represent new funding. Any changes in UK Government spending in England which results in either positive or negative consequentials in our funding settlement are confirmed each year at UK Main and Supplementary budgets.

It is an important principle of devolution that consequential funding is not ringfenced for similar purposes in devolved governments. All consequential funding forms part of the Welsh Government’s budget and is deployed in line with its priorities and voted by the Senedd.

Therefore, we are unable to supply figures for research and development funding in Health through UK Government consequentials as there is no meaningful direct connection between any line in the Welsh Budget motion and any element of UK Government expenditure.