Following the announcement of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Economic Renewal Plan (ERP) and the resultant restructuring of the Department for Economy and Transport including its subsequent delivery priorities, the Materials Network Wales is no longer being directly supported by the Welsh Assembly Government. Efforts are being made to find a way to support MNW in the future, but for the moment, our activities will be placed on hold.
We have been exploring ways in which the MNW could link in to the UK-wide Materials KTN, and there have been some positive meetings to this end. In addition, materials will play a key part in a new manufacturing forum likely to be set up to support 'Advanced Manufacturing & Materials', one of the core sectors for Wales. We will endeavour to keep you all informed of progress to these ends. The MNW has played an important part in bringing together the materials sector across Wales and I’m sure this relationship will continue in some form. In the meantime, the Materials KTN provides a very good source of information, albeit on a less local level.
I would like to personally thank all those who have been involved in MNW, including all our speakers, attendees at events and members of the steering committee. Especial thanks should go to our previous chairs, John Evans and Richard Smith, to Steve Patterson and even more so to Robert Walker, Pauline Jones and their colleagues at Quotec who have enthusiastically coordinated an excellent programme of activities over recent years. These efforts have led to significant promotion of the capabilities of the materials industries and academic R&D in Wales.
Cris Arnold
Chair of Steering Committee, MNW.