Meeting Note – 22 May 2026

Aberdare Hall, Cardiff University

NICW Dr David Clubb, Chair Dr Jen Baxter, Deputy Chair Aleena Khan, Commissioner Nick Tune, Commissioner Dr Eurgain Powell, Commissioner   Programme Office / Welsh Government Stuart Ingram, NICW Programme Office

Apologies Helen Armstrong, Commissioner Nicola Britton, NICW Programme Office

• Welcome

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

• Celebrations of Success / Commissioner Updates

• AK has been appointed to new role as Strategy and Growth consultant role within Atkins.
• JB has been awarded a Communications strategy contract for the growth zone in Wrexham and Flintshire
• EP took part in a Radio Cymru interview this week in her PHW role on the health impacts in relation to the CCC adaptation report
• DC did his final NICW appearance as a guest lecture at Advances in Management and Innovation 10th Anniversary Conference at Cardiff Met University.

Action: DC to update NICW website with updated Commissioner information where appropriate.

• Declarations of Interest

These will be updated as noted above. No additional new declarations of interest were received.

• Notes from previous meeting

The notes from the previous meeting were noted and agreed. 

• Actions from previous meeting

These were discussed. Completed and outstanding actions were noted, including completed blog posts. NT is drafting another post on AI infrastructure. JB and NT have completed courses in AI governance and wider implications of data centres.

• Risk register

This month’s discussion focused on the risk of NICW being absorbed into another body, particularly relevant given the potential creation of a new WDA-style organisation. Commissioners were clear that NICW’s value lies in its independence and its advisory role to Welsh Government; it is not a delivery body. Given how crowded this space already is, a proper review is needed. This will be raised with the incoming Minister (see below).

• Work Programme

Adam Price is the new Cabinet Minister with overall responsibility for NICW.

Year 1 Renewable Energy Report

Many of NICWs recommendations were included in the Plaid Cymru manifesto. A Business Wales article by Adam Price indicated that energy would be a priority. There needs to be an understanding of the land availability for new energy developments and the political / cost dimensions of the undergrounding of new grid lines.

Year 2 Flooding

Llyr Gruffudd is the new Cabinet Minister with responsibility for flooding and water. EP and HA both separately met with Liz Jenkins who is responsible for investigating the establishment of a Flood Forum for Wales. Engagement on this issue will be maintained, including with Roisin Willmott for the WG Flood Committee. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has published its updated Risk Assessment report for the UK that week.

Action: EP to write to the Llyr Gruffudd, Roisin Willmott and the Climate Change Committee requesting meetings with NICW to discuss our flooding report and recommendations.

Year 3 Climate Change Adaptation Communication

HA was not present to update on this work, but it was noted that the Grangetown legacy reports had been received and a blog post would follow shortly. It was also reported that HA would be attending the WG Climate Change / MACC event in early June.

JB shared experiences of an online workshop to talk about transport options in North Wales. Topics mainly discussed grey infrastructure and timetabling. It appeared to not take into account previous work.

Action: JB to write to TfW giving feedback on the workshop

Year 4 – Infrastructure Assessment

Year 4 – Infrastructure Delivery Research

No significant updates on these, but it was discussed that they would be useful to brief incoming Ministers on the issues impacting on Wales’ infrastructure.

Action – JB will write a blog on the delivery research and priorities for an incoming Ministers on unlocking infrastructure development.

• Planning for the new term – Engagement Plan

The previous circulated Engagement Plan was discussed. It was agreed in principle and would be kept under review to ensure that it can be resourced. Discussion also pointed to engagement with our Cabinet members (such as Llyr Gruffudd) regularly where their portfolios include infrastructure sectors. It was agreed that collaboration with other bodies would be useful in helping resource events etc.

• Planning for the new term – Development Day

The Development Day in Penarth on the 15^th May was discussed. It was agreed that the day was good in bringing forward discussion on the infrastructure sector issues and priorities for NICW. However, the subsequent elements relating to KPIs and OKRs was less clear. A report from the day is awaited.

• Planning for the new term – Engaging with a New Administration
• Planning for the new term – Priorities and Timescales

It was agreed that DC and JB would write to Adam Price as soon as possible requesting a discussion on NICWs remit for the new Senedd term.

Areas of discussion included: the green paper on water, digital, AI data centres, energy, public transport / active travel, nature on the board, financing model for infrastructure.

It was agreed that the next NICW meeting would focus on pinning down these ideas to feed into discussion with the new Cabinet Minister. It was noted that the existing model of one big report each year may not be suitable. The work programme discussion would drive this.

Action – Programme Office to agenda significant discussion at NICWs next meeting on this Senedd’s work programme.

• Nature on Board

There had been no expressions of interest from the Public Bodies Chairs group or a LinkedIn post advertising the support which NICW had offered.

DC expressed his desire to keep the Nature Guardian work going. This could be done ourselves by maintaining a NICW Nature Guardian which could be used to help advocate this work to other public bodies as part of their role.

Action – Chair & Programme Office to draft tender for small pool of potential Nature Guardians to work with NICW over the coming few years

• Communications: end of contract report from Equinox

The report from Equinox was noted and the current approach to contracting communications agencies was discussed. Alternative channels to targeting relevant people and bodies were discussed. It was noted that Equinox’s current contract was running until September and that our Communications work would be reviewed closer to that time.

• June visit

It was confirmed that the 26th June visit will be to Neath Port Talbot. The Local Authority had been approached (and confirmed) to help facilitate a visit with a focus on energy, regeneration and skills.  It was confirmed that this will be a day visit only and an online NICW meeting would be held on the afternoon of the 25th June. Further details will follow.

• AOB – none