0.6 Discussion  (Page 6/8)

There is therefore little surprise that in the main Universities across the UK, and arguably particularly in Wales, fail to work in strategic alliances in support of government economic strategy. Universities also make much of their independent nature and there at times seems to be near religious belief that they should not necessarily do what government asks them even in the context of economic development. At the time of completion of this study (Q1 2010), the world was beginning to emerge from at least the first phase of financial and economic crisis. The UK and consequently Wales had suffered badly and the public sector was facing significant cuts in budgets which were certain to come into play following the May 6 ^th General election of 2010. The WAG election cycle meant that a new Minister of Education (appointed following the retirement of the previous First Minister Rhodri Morgan in December 2009) had a further 12 months in office prior to WAG elections in May 2011. Signs were therefore emerging in the spring of 2010 of new determination to bring the Universities of Wales to heal using budgetary cuts as both carrot and stick, particularly in the context of collaborative working in support of economic development.

In the context outlined above, identification of target sectors for cluster development had, in the period leading up to Q1 2010 been largely left to individual institutions. Swansea University had responded to this challenge with three initiatives targeted at cluster development The Institute of Life Science (ILS), The Centre for NanoHealth (CNH), and the Institute for Advanced Telecommunications (IAT). These initiatives realised differing levels of success. IAT lacking institutional and regional embeddedness seems to have suffered and could form the subject of further study. ILS and CNH however survived that initial infant mortality period (‘Death Valley’), benefitting from a common governance structure, and are starting to flourish. Both ILS and CNH benefited from major funding from the WEFO Convergence programme in 2009 drawn from EU Structural Funds. The application process for funding required detailed market and sector analysis, and were judged to be potential vehicles for cluster platforms. Collaborative working emerged during the bidding process and WEFO. Both projects benefited from the market led and economic driven application process, which should be a model for future similar activity in Wales.

The creation of value, particularly for the regional economy is a central to this thesis. Traditionally, for certain activities, Wales has done well in comparison with other UK regions. For example, in terms of generating spin-out companies, Welsh universities have done comparably well in contrast with their English counterparts. Swansea University have historically produced more than its share of such companies, even though that flow appears to have dried up in recent years possibly due to changes in governance processes (this could also be the subject of further study, particularly since the second most prestigious research institution in Wales seems to have stopped performing on this KPI).