I believe that the increase in the Scottish child payment has changed the parameters for applying for free school meals. I believe that that is being looked at.

As someone who is in regular contact with schools, I am not surprised to hear that almost nine in 10 headteachers suggest that improvements have been made in closing the poverty-related attainment gap, despite the impact of the Covid pandemic.

As a former teacher, I know—and want to remind everyone about—the joy of seeing children developing and thriving socially, emotionally and academically and having fun learning.

I place on record my respect and gratitude for all members of the education profession, who work with compassion and dedication to deliver the best outcomes for the pupils in their care. Teachers have borne a huge responsibility as they have supported pupils and families throughout the pandemic, turning on a sixpence to upskill, go online and deliver remote and in-person learning while also dealing with their own personal circumstances.

Schools undertake a range of social inclusion work to mitigate the effects of the cost of living crisis. The Scottish Government rightly prioritises funding to support teachers and pupils throughout Scotland with measures including the Scottish child payment and the on-going expansion of free school meals, which will be available to all primary school pupils by the end of this session of Parliament. I urge the Government to go further with free school meals when it is possible to do so. It has also provided the school clothing grant and increased the number of hours of free childcare.

All that work means that teachers deserve decent salaries. It is worth noting that teachers in Scotland are currently the best-paid teaching workforce in the UK. The starting salary for a teacher in Scotland is £33,724, which is considerably higher than the £28,000 starting salary proposed for teachers in England and Wales.

Last week, I attended the Scottish Learning Festival in Dunfermline. It was a joy to be among pupils again and to speak to them about the real-life innovation that is going on in schools. This year’s festival theme was placing learners at the heart of Scottish education, and the festival was busy and vibrant.

The cabinet secretary chose that event to launch the national discussion referred to earlier, an initiative suggested by Professor Ken Muir in his report, “Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Education”.

The national discussion is specifically designed to encourage and facilitate the inclusion of learners and teachers in education reform. That takes time and it has to be done properly to make sure that it is meaningful.

I will.

I would like to celebrate the amazing work that universities do in the area of research, in particular, so I will ask a couple of questions about research. I want to get an idea of what the experience of postgraduate researchers is in the current climate. As we know, the SFC has identified a gap in research funding. Initially, I would like to hear about the postgraduate experience of that. Perhaps Ellie Gomersall could go first.

Could the universities provide any more support to research students? I have visited facilities at the University of Glasgow where some amazing joint work is being done in partnership with charities. Could that be expanded?

Thank you for that.

The UK and European Union trade and co-operation agreement includes provisions that allow the UK to continue to participate in some EU programmes, such as horizon Europe for research and Copernicus for space. Horizon 2020 has been worth €711 million to Scottish organisations since 2014. We know that no agreement has been reached since the TCA was introduced in January. Has that impacted on research already? Do you anticipate that it will have an impact? What can be done to get that moving?

The question will be short. It is specifically for Karen Watt and is about something in the SFC report about the research council funding share and whether we should consider whether we are positioned appropriately to win new types of funding from the UKRI. How can we be better positioned?

Thanks, Karen. Professor Boyne, do you have anything to add to that?

We are agreed. Thank you.

The public part of today’s meeting is at an end, and we will consider our final agenda items in private. Thank you, and good afternoon.

Thank you.

Research excellence framework results for 2021 show that Scotland’s universities presented research that was judged to be world-leading or of four-star quality; 86 per cent of what was submitted was world-leading or internationally excellent. Could either or both of you share some examples of good practice and of what has led to that success, so that we can learn from that and build upon it? If anything can be done better, it would be helpful for us to hear about that.