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Life Sciences and Health in South West Wales: A Sub-regional Innovation Ecosystem

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Abstract

South Wales has been nurturing a nascent Life Sciences cluster through initiatives including the Institute of Life Science (ILS) at Swansea University Medical School. ILS aims to provide an entrepreneurial learning environment transcending industry, health care, academia and further education. This chapter describes how efforts to develop the sector have been undertaken through structured efforts of Understanding, Acting and Measuring, resulting in new ventures formed through spin-outs to commercialise research output and collaboration with other enterprises. Building upon concepts of clustering and regional innovation systems, the approach demonstrates the harnessing of a long-term strategy involving smart specialisation resulting in emerging and meaningful economic impact. Networking and knowledge exchange are shown as core components of a system reaching across wider sectors involving a diversity of skills. The conclusions demonstrate how entrepreneurial learning has also helped develop further actions including Talent Bank in support of the region’s broader ambition of A Regional Collaboration for Health.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.swansea.ac.uk/ils/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.lifescienceshubwales.com/members/scinapse/.

  3. 3.

    http://www.swansea.ac.uk/reis/case-studies/lead-wales/.

  4. 4.

    Research Excellence Framework 2014, www.ref.ac.uk.

  5. 5.

    https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Business-Economy-and-Labour-Market/People-and-Work/Earnings/averageweeklyearnings-by-occupation-ukcountry.

  6. 6.

    Over 500 individuals in total were involved in the construction of the ILS2 facility, though the peak relates to the highest FTE value of individuals contracted for over twelve months by prime or subcontractors.

  7. 7.

    https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Business-Economy-and-Labour-Market/People-and-Work/Earnings/averageweeklyearnings-by-occupation-ukcountry.

  8. 8.

    https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Business-Economy-and-Labour-Market/People-and-Work/Earnings/averageweeklyearnings-by-welshlocalareas-year.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Gareth Huw Davies, Robert Marc Clement, Louisa Huxtable-Thomas, Sian Roderick, Jennifer Gregory, Bjorn Max Rodde & Jayne Daniels

  2. Swansea University Medical School, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    George Johnson

  3. Cell Therapy Ltd, Cardiff, UK

    Brian Lee Perkins

Authors
  1. Gareth Huw Davies
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  2. Robert Marc Clement
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  3. Louisa Huxtable-Thomas
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  4. George Johnson
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  5. Brian Lee Perkins
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  6. Sian Roderick
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  7. Jennifer Gregory
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  8. Bjorn Max Rodde
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  9. Jayne Daniels
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Correspondence to Gareth Huw Davies .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Strategic Regional Collaboration, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Judith James

  2. Department of Adult Continuing Education, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Jean Preece

  3. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany

    Raúl Valdés-Cotera

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Davies, G.H. et al. (2018). Life Sciences and Health in South West Wales: A Sub-regional Innovation Ecosystem. In: James, J., Preece, J., Valdés-Cotera, R. (eds) Entrepreneurial Learning City Regions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61130-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61130-3_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61129-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61130-3

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