We offer our congratulations to Vaughan Gething on becoming First Minister of Wales. His achievement in becoming the first black leader of any European nation is a significant one.

We look forward to working with him in the years to come, as we have in the past. In 2022, when Minister for the Economy, he invited us to work with Welsh Government to co-host and co-convene a roundtable discussion of the Draft Innovation Strategy for Wales. We, therefore, have a shared interest in the sort of partnership working that Wales needs in order to meet its enormous potential. High-class research and Welsh universities will have a major role to play in meeting that potential.

At the same time, we put on record our thanks to Mark Drakeford for his years of service. The Society appreciates the personal interest he took in our work and in the work of the Celtic Academies Alliance, which is forging links with partner academies in Scotland and Ireland.