Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the North Wales growth deal for universities in that region.

The UK Government is investing £790 million in city and growth deals across Wales, including £120 million in the North Wales Growth Deal.

The six local authorities in North Wales are driving forward the Deal and collaborating with the region’s universities and higher education institutions to develop research and innovation projects which increase growth, deliver jobs and build a skilled workforce for the future.

Bangor University recently received £3m in Growth Deal funding for its Digital Signalling Processing Centre. This exciting project will improve the handling and transmission of data, and is putting North Wales at the forefront of this emerging sector. Growth Deal partners are also considering two other potential projects at the University; a low-carbon centre of excellence and a centre for environmental biotechnology.

The Growth Deal is also working with Wrexham Glyndwr University to develop an enterprise engineering optic centre, focusing on reducing the use of carbon in manufacturing.