PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

  As the world economy begins to shake off the effects of Covid-19, nations will be looking to gain competitive advantage as they recover from the recession caused by the pandemic. Research has shown that innovation remains a key element of competitiveness and a factor that can differentiate national economies in terms of growth and development. An important data source to understand this phenomenon is the Global Innovation Index (GII) which was published earlier this week. This not only captures the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies and ranks them, but also tracks the most recent global innovation trends.  So what does it say about the state of innovation during the Covid-19 crisis? Whilst economies have generally had a rough time over the last 18 months, the GII 2021 report shows that not only has investment in innovation shown great resilience during 2020 but, in certain sectors and regions, has exceeded expectations.  In terms of ranking, it is worth n...

It is generally accepted by economists around the world that research and development (R&D) is the foundation to the development of innovative and competitive economies. Given this, it is not surprising that one of the principles of the Welsh Government’s current “ Prosperity for Al l” strategy is to support businesses to innovate, introduce new products and services and succeed. To achieve this, it is clear that businesses need to be encouraged to invest more in R&D as this will lead to better products and services that markets will consume. One of the key indicators for assessing the innovation that takes place within the UK is the measure of research and development spending by the private sector, otherwise known as BERD. The latest statistics show us that BERD for the whole of the UK in 2017 was £23.7 billion with the three most prosperous regions – London, South East of England and the East of England – accounting for 52 per cent of this expenditure. In contrast...

The economist William Baumol once suggested that “virtually all the economic growth that has occurred since the eighteenth century is ultimately attributable to innovation.”  Given the overwhelming evidence of the critical importance of research and innovation to prosperity over the last three hundred years, it is difficult to argue with the fundamentals of that statement. That is why an independent review into research and innovation in Wales, commissioned by the Welsh Government and published this week , should be welcomed by everyone who wants the Welsh economy to succeed. Written by Professor Graham Reid from University College London, it is probably one of the most important policy documents to come out in recent years, and sets out clear and unequivocal recommendations as to how Wales can stay ahead of the game in terms of ensuring that it not only grows its research base but that it makes a vital and continuing contribution to economic prosperity. The good news is t...

The Technium programme of high technology incubators was arguably the highest-profile innovation policy in Wales since devolution, featuring in every one of the Welsh government’s economic strategies from 2000 until its eventual demise in 2010. It also represented a significant infrastructural investment of over £100 million on ten buildings with 89 per cent of this coming from European Union Structural Funds and public sector matched funds. To say it was an expensive failure is an understatement. Only 86 new high-technology firms were started out of target of 250 businesses with just over 800 high technology jobs created (at a cost of around £190,000 per job). In addition, the occupancy rates in some of Techniums was as low as four per cent and only £26 million of additional turnover was achieved in the tenant companies instead of the target of £112 million. So what went wrong and what lessons can be learnt given that some policymakers may be developing similar projects agai...

They say that information is power but in the case of economic development, information is what you that ability to make informed decisions that can have a real impact on individuals and businesses. For information geeks like myself, getting access to data that can really demonstrate how an economy works is the holy grail in terms of understanding the business community. That is why it was really exciting to attend a presentation last week on a ground-breaking project that could, if developed properly, have that impact here in Wales. The innovation charity NESTA, with funding from the Welsh Government, has established a new innovation analytics project called Arloesiadur (which is Welsh for “Innovation Tool”). This is a web platform which will measure and understand innovation and, through this, present policymakers in Wales with data to make informed decisions. To date, the Arloesiadur project has analysed business datasets from the Office of Na...