PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Many have argued that one of the drivers of the referendum result to leave the European Union was a fear of immigration which, in the minds of a significant part of the population, had become too high. Yet one of the real failures of the remain camp was to emphasise the positive benefits of immigration which affects all aspects of our lives. With a similar discussion on immigration currently going on in America under the Trump Presidency especially in terms of increasing jobs for US born citizens, it may be worth looking in detail at the impact that immigration has had on the World’s largest economy over the last two decades. One of the first studies to identify the positive impact of immigrants was the ground-breaking book “ The New Argonauts ” published back in 2006 from the Berkeley academic Anna Lee Saxenian. In a tour de force of modern economic geography, she examined the effect that immigrants were having on the development of the most economically successful region glo...

This week, I was delighted to be back in the USA with a brilliant group of Welsh start-ups to work with one of the world’s leading universities, namely the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The aim of the visit was to understand some of the key aspects of the innovation ecosystem developed around MIT and, more importantly, to understand whether there were any lessons from their experiences for the Welsh economy. The city of Boston and its surrounding areas is now seen as one of the primary innovation regions in the World, not least because of the technology that emerges from over fifty academic institutions including MIT and the world class Harvard University. These universities also teach those talented young people who are not only in demand from large corporates such as Google, IBM, Facebook, Amazon and Uber but who are increasingly looking to set up their own businesses. Indeed, the United States Chamber of Commerce named Boston as the best American city for foste...

As discussed in this column back in October, Wales has become a member of the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) , which is being led by one of the top universities in the World, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. But why would a group from Wales and a range of other countries want to work with academics to develop a more enterprising approach to economic development? Part of the answer lies in a report that examines the economic impact of MIT’s alumni. It shows that the university’s graduates launched 30,200 active companies, employing roughly 4.6 million people and currently generating annual revenues of around £1.3 trillion. In fact, if MIT was a country, it would be the ninth most successful in the world between Russia and India. But the report also shows that this trend is accelerating with more and more graduates from MIT (and who could probably secure a job in any organisation in the World) taking the leap to start their ow...

Last month,  I gave my inaugural professorial lecture at the University of the West of England (UWE) on the topic of entrepreneurial universities, a theme that has been of professional and personal interest to me since I started my academic career. The lecture gave me the opportunity to reflect on a journey that started twenty two years ago when I started my first job at that hotbed of entrepreneurial thinking back in the 1980s and 1990s, namely Durham University Business School. Led by Professor Allan Gibb , its small business centre revolutionised theory and practice in entrepreneurship across the world and the four exciting and intensive years I spent there not only fast tracked my understanding of the area but also formed the foundation for my subsequent career. Whilst I have since been appointed to various academic positions across the UK, I also consider myself blessed to have been able, as part of my job, to travel widely to some fantastic places and meet great people....

Fifteen years, a decision was taken by the then Welsh Development Agency (WDA) to create a new Entrepreneurship Action Plan for Wales . This would be the first regional enterprise strategy anywhere in the World and would help to to create a more entrepreneurial culture that would lead to more start-up businesses and, as a result,  greater wealth and employment in the economy. Despite its initial successes - the number of new businesses increased by 28 per cent in the period 2002-2004 - it was abandoned when the decision was made to bring the WDA into the Welsh Government. As a result, one of the most forward thinking economic policy initiatives ever created within Wales was lost. It was also somewhat ironic that the European Commission then decided to establish its own Entrepreneurship Action Plan to push forward its initiatives in this area under one coherent strategy. In fact, various bodies have since seen the benefit of creating a regional approach to stimulating entr...

When I worked for the University of Wales prior to my recent move to Bristol Business School, one of my primary objectives was to build better links between Wales and the leading innovation institutions in the World. One of the most important relationships formed during my tenure was with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is currently ranked as the leading university in the World. With seventy-six Nobel Prize laureates having been affiliated with MIT and £400m spent annually on research, it has become a real powerhouse for the generation of new knowledge. But what is the real impact of all this brainpower on the economy? Not surprisingly, MIT's motto is "Mens et Manus" which translates from the Latin to mean "Mind and Hand". This philosophy is reflected in how it has made a real difference in transferring technology from the university to the market-place through its graduates. Indeed, it has been estimated that there are 25,800 co...

Finally back in Wales after four excellent days of hard graft at MIT and Harvard. At this stage, I can't divulge exactly what we discussed as the University will want to make a major announcement in the near future. However, the trailer below of a new film "Rescue " gives a taster of the sort of work that a new and exciting multi-university global centre could be working on in the very near future. Watch this space.  

With the University of Wales concluding a significant research agreement with a number of US universities this week, I was invited over to Boston to discuss the next steps forward with partners from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My previous visits to the USA have always been out of London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic but this time, I decided to give Aer Lingus a go. Why the Irish airline you may ask? Well, the main reason is that, in conjunction with their regional partner Aer Arran, there is a service out of Cardiff that connects to the East Coast of the USA via Dublin. There are a number of advantages to the flight, not least avoiding the three hour train journey to Heathrow followed by the two hour check in period. But it also means I can roll up at a relatively quiet Cardiff Airport around three quarters of an hour before departure, go quickly through security and start the journey relatively stress-free. The Cardiff-Dublin fl...