Vorsprung durch Technium? Towards a system of innovation in South West Wales

Abstract

Begun in 2001, Technium is a Welsh university-business interface project presently consisting of ten facilities. Seven of these are jointly managed by the Welsh Development Agency and Swansea University. Taken with other linked developments at the University, Technium is helping to generate a distinct sub-regional innovation system incorporating many of the features that researchers have identified as critical to successful localised learning and innovation. A provisional evaluation of costs and benefits suggests that recent criticism of the project is unjustified. With its initial dependence on EU Structural Funds, the Technium model incorporates design elements which may be approriate to other relatively deprived regions of the EU.