How much investment has the Welsh Government attracted from the private sector to develop Welsh research and innovation in the past 12 months?
In the financial year 2021-22, our SMART Cymru grant scheme, which co-invests in business R&D, leveraged £6.8m of private sector funding, whilst SMART Expertise which supports business/academia collaboration, leveraged £14.5m, giving a total private sector investment for the SMART schemes of £21.3m.
European funds are also awarded via the Welsh Government for research and innovation projects through the 2014-2020 European Structural Funds programmes of the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). These projects can attract private sector investment through match funding and can continue to deliver until the programmes close in December 2023.
These programmes are multi-annual, with projects operating over a number of years, so a breakdown per year of private sector match funding committed to research and innovation is not available.
However based on the data that is available, the level of private sector match funding committed through the EU Structural Funds programmes up to 31 March 2022, is £142.6m against a total investment value of £989.5m for research and innovation operations.