PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Over the last few months, we have seen many reports purporting to be responding to the challenges that will be faced by the UK following the Covid-19 pandemic. In addressing this “new normal” some have, frankly, stretched incredulity with their claims of revolution in society, the workplace and the economy as a whole.  However, when an organisation such as nesta – one the UK’s leading thinktanks - brings together its thoughts on how innovation could and should change to create a more equitable and productive economy going forward, then it is worth an hour of anyone’s time (especially those in working in politics and policy) to read through its conclusions. Its report “Innovation after Lockdown - using innovation to build a more balanced, resilient economy ” certainly hits the mark with a number of observations and, more importantly, recommendations that need to be considered carefully at the highest levels of government. The most important point is that whilst we all know that inno...

As many economists will inform you, innovation is a key foundation to any successful and competitive country and the development of new technologies, products, processes and services can make a real economic difference to local, regional and national economies.  Despite this, there have been criticisms that innovation in the UK is limited to being driven by a small number of individuals and organisations and that the public feels generally disengaged from the process. That is why a recent survey from the innovation body NESTA on public attitudes to innovation and technology is valuable in not only showing current public perceptions but also where the priorities in shaping future policies towards the Welsh economy and wider society should be. The study, which interviewed over a thousand adults, demonstrates that there is not only uncertainty in Wales about the future but a sense of disempowerment in shaping it going forward with half stating that they often felt the world was chan...

In an analysis of the changes facing the global workforce, the World Economic Forum concluded that most of the skills that many employees currently have will be largely irrelevant by the end of this decade. And as other research studies have also demonstrated, many of the new competences that will be needed are related to digital skills not only in knowledge-based industries but across all sectors. Given this, the key question for many employers in this scenario is which digital skills will be most needed in the future? This is the conundrum that the innovation body NESTA has been analysing in detail through the novel method of examining online job adverts between 2012 and 2017 and the study reveals some fascinating and sometimes unexpected findings. First of all, the amazing number of digital skills across all sectors – 1,358 different types including 756 types of software - demonstrates the challenge in developing a coherent and comprehensive approach to training. These r...

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...

Last month, the innovation charity NESTA published a report examining the impact of property developments - such as incubators and accelerators - on the development of new and growing businesses. First established in the UK thirty years ago, incubators are typically defined as physical spaces that charge rent or membership fees to entrepreneurs and provide additional services such as training for entrepreneurs, access to networks and specialist equipment. The first accelerator in the UK was only founded in 2007 although the vast majority have been set-up during the last five years. They are different to incubators because they usually offer seed funding to resident businesses, usually in the form of an equity investment. They also put their tenants through a highly selective programme (that can last up to a year) to help them develop a business plan, prepare for pitching to potential investors and undertake initial market testing. So what is the impact of this type of busine...

The creative industries sector is making an increasingly important economic contribution to the UK economy. That is the conclusion of a major new study from the innovation body NESTA whose recent report - The Geography of Creativity in the UK - creative cluster, creative people and creative networks - shows that the annual contribution of the sector to UK national prosperity is now £81.4bn which equates to 5% of the whole economy. The sector include advertising and marketing, film, TV, video, radio and photography, games and digital media as well as music, performing and visual arts. And it has grown by 9%, almost twice as fast as the UK economy as a whole and outstripping many other industries across the country. In terms of where creative industries are important, the NESTA research has identified 47 so-called ‘creative clusters’ across the UK, with only one in Wales which is based around Cardiff. Not surprisingly, London and the South East of England still dominate the ...

As those who regularly read this column will know, I am a strong advocate of learning from the experiences of others, especially when it comes to regional development. That is why the latest report from the UK’s innovation agency Nesta is of particular interest in understanding how other small nations have developed their economies successfully. "When Small is Beautiful – lessons from highly innovative small countries " makes a compelling case that when it comes to innovative economies, it is not only the giants of USA, Germany, Korea and Japan that dominate. Indeed, if we examine various indices on competitiveness and innovation, economies with populations of less than ten million such as Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Switzerland and Israel are usually ranked highly. So what can be learnt from the experiences of the most innovative smaller nations and are there lessons for Wales from such experiences? According to Nesta, the first common feature of these countries ...

The Triple Helix model, where government, academia and industry work together to create a vibrant innovation economy, is one of the new holy grails for policymakers around the World. And over the last three years, a team of researchers at the University of Wales has been examining this process within the Welsh economy and recently completed a series of cases studies on this process. One of the more fascinating examples we examined was that of the Technium programme. This was established at the beginning of the last decade to provide office space and support for high technology firms to commercialise university research and turn this into thousands of highly paid jobs within technology-based firms in Wales. Unfortunately, such ambitious plans did not materialise and whilst ten Techniums were built across Wales at a massive cost to the public purse , they ended up largely unoccupied and expensive to maintain. Indeed, an evaluation of the Technium programmes carried out by the ...

Last Thursday, I was privileged to speak at NESTA’s annual roadshow to encourage greater innovation in Wales. As a charity devoted to promoting and developing innovation across the UK, the event was a perfect opportunity to showcase the work they are already doing in Wales and to consult on how to promote further innovation in the economy. This includes a research project at the University of Wales that is examining regional innovation within peripheral economies, using Wales as a case study of how academia, industry and government can work together to develop a more innovative economy. Whilst the project still has some way to go until it is completed, the preliminary results should hopefully have a direct impact on the way that innovation policy is developed within Wales, especially in terms of the commercialisation of knowledge from business and the university sector. There will be more written on the results from this research project over the next few months. But it i...