South Wales was the birthplace of the industrial revolution, a crucible of industrial activity which supplied the world with copper, iron, coal and steel. However, Welsh manufacturing has not fared well since the decline of heavy industry in the second half of the twentieth century. Attempts to seed new manufacturing competences have been hampered by productivity and growth issues. Manufacturing employment in Wales fell by 4% between 2015-17, to around 132,000, and Wales persistently ranks bottom of the UK regions on productivity and pay. Our SIPF project focusses on strengthening an emerging regional Cluster in advanced semiconductor materials and manufacturing. This cluster already hosts 1,400 high value manufacturing jobs in the region, and is delivering well above average contributions to productivity, global exports and regional Gross Value Add (GVA) across a well-defined ~$100B global market opportunity. The primary aim of the project is to develop a global advantage in a sovereign, key enabling technology which will allow the UK to increase trade globally in critical sectors such as communications, 5G, autonomous and electric vehicles, medical devices - all opportunities the UK must act on to secure our long-term future prosperity. The consortium of Cardiff and Swansea Universities, Cardiff Capital City Region and Welsh Government, working together with six semiconductor manufacturing companies and two research translation companies in the South Wales region will: deliver new and critical Intellectual Property to enable the Cluster to increase manufacturing value and uniqueness; equip the regional workforce with the skills required to drive a doubling of Cluster headcount to ~3,000 by 2025 facilitate the structural conditions for long-term, sustainable growth and persistence across the Cluster. Ultimately, the aim is to deliver an additional £140M per annum of GVA uplift and £55M of high- value, commercially exploitable research and development activities by 2025. The development of the project has been shaped by the principles of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act, to ensure it focuses on wider positive social and environmental objectives driven by economic inclusion, responsible research and sustainable development.
There is no overall change in the project scope.
The reason 'Change project scope' needs to be ticked here is because the original scope for Work package 4 (Skills) is to design the develop the course content.
Delivery of these courses was not part of the original scope. However, in June 2025 SiPF (see approval email in Appendix 1 of the cover letter) approved the delivery costs for WP4. The programme has allocated £15k towards the delivery of two courses as also detailed in the cover letter.