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Item 3 is consideration of two reports from the Scottish Government. One is on horizon 2020 and the other is a response to the committee’s inquiry into foreign languages in primary schools. Clare Adamson has some brief comments to make on the latter.
The Government’s response on foreign languages is interesting. We are definitely moving from an in-principle stage to a roll-out and implementation phase.
I know that the matter is under consideration and that we have not confirmed our work programme with the Education and Culture Committee, but now would be a good time to hand the topic over because the European context has moved on to the education and implementation side.
Do other members have any comments on either horizon 2020 or foreign languages?
Clare Adamson probably has a point about the foreign languages work, but I suggest that we keep an overview of the topic. I do not know whether it would be possible for the committee to have a rapporteur to the Education and Culture Committee, or am I right in thinking that some of our colleagues are on both committees and might be able to do that without too much extra work?
Clare Adamson is the EU rapporteur for the Education and Culture Committee.
Sorry, Clare—I did not realise that. In that case, it would make perfect sense to do it in that way.
The inquiry recommendations include a built-in requirement for the Scottish Government to provide an update on the progress that has been made, so we can ask for information on that in the six-monthly updates.
Are there any comments on horizon 2020? The committee did a huge piece of work on that; indeed, we held a very successful conference on it. When I read the report, the whole process seemed very familiar to me. One subject that came out of the horizon 2020 inquiry was how we can engage many more small and medium-sized enterprises, and I was surprised to see how much money has gone to them. Perhaps there is a bit of work to maintain, sustain and grow that. For clarification, I am commenting on what small and medium-sized enterprises got from framework programme 7 and what—I hope—they can expect from the successor programme, horizon 2020.
I am interested in the innovation voucher scheme. That seems to make sense to me. It would be interesting to know—perhaps we will get this information as a matter of course—how many of the companies went on to successfully get money as a result of the seedcorn funding that they had through the scheme and what level of funding they got, in order to see how much the £5,000 awards are levering back in. It would also be interesting to follow those awards through to see what difference they make to individual businesses. Getting the money is one thing, but what people do with it is a quite different matter.
Yes. Perhaps we could see some case studies. When we put our recommendations to the Scottish Government, the issue could be included as part of our six-monthly progress updates. I want to keep a close eye on the matter.
We had some comments from Professor Anne Glover, the chief scientific adviser to the president of the European Commission, and she suggested that there are great opportunities in Europe that we are perhaps not tapping into. The committee has tried to push the Scottish Government to ensure that it looks at every single avenue where we can secure funding, especially for research and innovation because, although we do pretty well there, we could do better.
I read some interesting articles by Professor Glover in the press last Sunday. I drew them to the attention of the clerks, so I hope that the issues will appear in future committee papers.
Are there any further comments on the two Scottish Government reports, other than on the need to keep our fingers on the pulse and keep pushing for updates?
My apologies, convener. I drew those articles to the attention of the clerks to the Education and Culture Committee and not the clerks to this committee, so the information will appear in that committee’s papers at some point.
Okay. It would be great if you could share that with this committee.
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