§ 2. Mr. Matthewsasked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation how his Department is supporting research in Great Britain on the problems facing developing countries.
§ Mr. R. CarrWe are spending nearly £l million in the current financial year on supporting research in Britain for the benefit of developing countries. The Anti-locust Research Centre and the Tropical Products Institute are two well-established, examples. A new one is the Tsetse Fly Laboratory at Bristol which I opened last month.
My Department also makes grants for research at universities and other institutions.
§ Mr. MatthewsWould my right hon. Friend agree that the value of this work depends largely on its application in the developing countries themselves?
§ Mr. CarrYes, indeed, and we try to take care of that. Many of the people working here on research have overseas connections of long standing and all the 3 research institutes which we support take trouble to keep in touch with events overseas, both by correspondence and by visits in both directions. The Tropical Products Institute, to take one example, had no fewer than 1,000 inquiries to handle last year.
§ Mr. G. M. ThomsonCould the right hon. Gentleman tell the House something of the inter-governmental machinery which exists to make sure that all the useful results of this research are made available to the Governments of the developing countries?
§ Mr. CarrI would have to make a long speech about that, but if the hon. Gentleman will put down a Question I will try and condense the Answer.