Cash call rejected

Calls from a Welsh Assembly committee for a cash injection to support a radical shake-up of the way science is funded and co-ordinated in Wales have been rejected by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Assembly members argued in a report published last month that there was an urgent need for "significantly increased" funding to develop research infrastructure and increase the total volume of world-class science produced in Wales.

The report, from the Assembly's Enterprise, Innovation and Networks Committee, says that Wales needs to appoint a chief science officer to oversee an office of science and technology that could co-ordinate a new science policy for Wales.

The Welsh Assembly Government rejected all of the report's key recommendations, arguing that it had proposals for a science policy for Wales and that it would be "premature" to make any decisions before these were agreed.