Swansea Bay Futures - Universities & Research
Swansea Bay is home to three Technium business incubators - Technium #1 and #2 in Swansea’s SA1 and Technium Digital at Swansea University. Served by the latest information technology, they offer an environment to enable knowledge based start-up and spin-out companies to realise their potential. The Engineering Centre for Manufacturing and Materials is also based in the region, on a 16 acre site at Port Talbot.
Swansea Bay’s three Higher Education Establishments collaborate through the Dragon Innovation Partnership to maximise opportunities for transferring knowledge and expertise between themselves and external companies and organisations.
Swansea University is an internationally respected research-lead university and a strong economic driver for the region. Some 12,000 students are presently based there. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, RAE, reported that Swansea University has the largest increase in internationally excellent research in the UK. The University has been awarded eleven prestigious Research Council UK Fellowships, in fields as diverse as Nanomedicine, Computational Biomedical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics and Geography. The University actively works to attract of hi-tech industry to work alongside it, as demonstrated in its key developments, which includes the £50 million Institute of Life Science (ILS), which has recently been expanded with the addition of ILS2 and is already home to the Boots Centre for Innovation; the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research and the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre.
Swansea Metropolitan University, formerly Swansea Institute, has around 6,500 students. Research strengths include art & design, engineering (motorsports) and education. It also has a particularly strong reputation in digital animation. The Creative Industries Research and Innovation Centre, providing a unique support package to practitioners, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs, is part of the University.
University of Wales: Trinity St David, formed in April 2009, through the merger of Trinity College Carmarthen and Lampeter University. September 2010 saw its first intake of students.
