Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022

Research and innovation

105 Financial support for research and innovation

(1) The Commission may provide financial resources to the governing body of a specified provider in respect of expenditure incurred, or to be incurred, by the governing body or by a collaborating body for the purposes of, or in connection with, research or innovation.

(2) The Commission may also provide financial resources to any person in respect of expenditure incurred, or to be incurred, by the person for the purpose of the provision by any person of services for the purposes of, or in connection with, the carrying out of research or innovation by a specified provider.

(3) In exercising its functions under this section to provide financial resources to a specified provider, the Commission must have regard—

(a) to the desirability of not discouraging that provider from maintaining or developing funding from other sources, and

(b) (so far as it considers it appropriate to do so in the light of any other relevant considerations) to the desirability of maintaining any distinctive characteristics of the provider.

(4) In this section—

• “collaborating body” (“corff sy’n cydlafurio”), in relation to a specified provider, means a person—

  (a)

  to whom the governing body of the specified provider proposes to pa‍y all or some of the financial resources provided to it under subsection (1), and

  (b)

  who is‍ carrying out, is proposing to carry out or has carried out research or innovation on behalf of the specified provider, or who is working, is proposing to work or has worked, in collaboration with the provider for the purpose for which the financial resources are provided;

• “specified provider” (“darparwr penodedig”) means a registered provider registered in a category specified for the purposes of this section in regulations made by the Welsh Ministers.

(5) The Commission must give its consent before the governing body of the specified provider makes a payment to a collaborating body (see section 109 for further provision about the Commission’s consent).

106 Financial support for research and innovation: terms and conditions

(1) Financial resources may be provided by the Commission under section 105 on the terms and conditions that the Commission considers appropriate.

(2) The terms and conditions may (among other things)—

(a) enable the Commission to require the repayment, in whole or in part, of sums paid by it if any of the terms and conditions subject to which the sums were paid is not complied with;

(b) require the payment of interest in respect of any period during which a sum due to the Commission in accordance with any of the terms and conditions remains unpaid.

(3) The terms and conditions must not relate to the application of any sums derived otherwise than from the Commission.

(4) When—

(a) deciding to provide financial resources under section 105, and

(b) determining any terms and conditions of financial resources provided under that section,

the Commission must have regard to the principle that decisions on individual research or innovation proposals are best taken following an evaluation of the quality and likely impact of the proposals (such as a peer review process).

107 The Commission’s other functions in relation to research and innovation

(1) The Commission must—

(a) promote awareness and understanding in Wales of the research and innovation activities it funds;

(b) disseminate in Wales the results of the research and innovation activities it funds;

(c) facilitate the practical application in Wales of the results of research and innovation activities it funds.‍

(2) The Commission must monitor how financial resources provided under section 105 are used.

(3) The Commission must include in its annual report (prepared under paragraph 16 of Schedule 1) the conclusions it reaches from that monitoring as to the extent to which the activities it funds, for the financial year to which the report relates—

(a) are achieving successful results,

(b) are being delivered effectively, and

(c) represent value for money.