Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN

Rees, Harrison; Rees, Daniel; Thomas, Roderick; Lewis, Hafwen; Coombs, Zoe; Davies, Gareth

doi:10.34190/ecie.20.1.4201

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Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN

Harrison Rees, Daniel Rees

, Roderick Thomas, Hafwen Lewis, Zoe Coombs

, Gareth Davies

European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Volume: 20, Issue: 1, Pages: 304 - 312

Swansea University Authors: Harrison Rees, Daniel Rees , Roderick Thomas, Hafwen Lewis, Gareth Davies

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DOI (Published version): 10.34190/ecie.20.1.4201

Abstract

This paper presents a practitioner report of two exemplar European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projects within Cymru (Wales). Namely analysing the AgorIP and Celtic Advanced Life Science Innovation Network (CALIN) business and research support projects within the context of Regional Innovation...

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Published in:	European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship
ISSN:	2049-1050 2049-1069
Published:	Academic Conferences International Ltd 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70467

first_indexed	2025-09-24T16:02:00Z
last_indexed	2025-10-11T04:30:29Z
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Jointly supporting over 300 enterprises and organisations across their lifetimes, the projects' outcomes offer the potential to learn from previous publicly funded business support initiatives within the Cymru RIS. This paper will use these outcomes to inform future Cymru RIS support projects that could learn from and improve on the operations of those before it. These new projects should focus on sharing capabilities and avoiding duplication where possible,incorporating and utilising the individual capabilities and knowledge bases of Cymru's HEIs and Science Parks, with the ability to work on projects that combine organisations across Cymru and beyond. 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spelling	2025-10-10T14:46:02.1750762 v2 70467 2025-09-24 Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN 363d910238f9eeb9e4eb3948b7c6a712 Harrison Rees Harrison Rees true false daa6762111f9ebf62b9c2ec655512783 0000-0003-0372-6096 Daniel Rees Daniel Rees true false 891091891b6eee412668ae216f713312 Roderick Thomas Roderick Thomas true false 71cf3de0e836970c07f007d58f9c99be Hafwen Lewis Hafwen Lewis true false 0fa6da2da22b7dce598291b581746188 0000-0001-7872-7574 Gareth Davies Gareth Davies true false 2025-09-24 CBAE This paper presents a practitioner report of two exemplar European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projects within Cymru (Wales). Namely analysing the AgorIP and Celtic Advanced Life Science Innovation Network (CALIN) business and research support projects within the context of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) (Cooke et al, 2004; Pino & Ortega,2018). Cymru has had a long history tied to innovation with Llywodraeth Cymru (Welsh Government) placing the need toencourage Research Development & Innovation (RD&I) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) competitiveness at the forefront of their vision for Cymru’s future economy. Both lead by Prifysgol Abertawe (Swansea University), the AgorIP and CALIN projects had different delivery models, AgorIP having secondees in external Cymru HEIs and GIG Cymru UHBs (NHS Wales University Health Boards) that supported the delivery at the main hub, and CALIN, a partnership between three Cymru and three Irish HEIs. Jointly supporting over 300 enterprises and organisations across their lifetimes, the projects' outcomes offer the potential to learn from previous publicly funded business support initiatives within the Cymru RIS. This paper will use these outcomes to inform future Cymru RIS support projects that could learn from and improve on the operations of those before it. These new projects should focus on sharing capabilities and avoiding duplication where possible,incorporating and utilising the individual capabilities and knowledge bases of Cymru's HEIs and Science Parks, with the ability to work on projects that combine organisations across Cymru and beyond. Further, the projects should adopt AI-enabled software as a ‘shopfront’ to engage with users, automate the creation of RIS networks, and provide business support templates and training that can be supplemented by additional support from project partners. Journal Article European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship 20 1 304 312 Academic Conferences International Ltd 2049-1050 2049-1069 Regional Innovation Systems (RIS), Innovation, Technology Transfer, Open Innovation, Publicly Funded Business Support 19 9 2025 2025-09-19 10.34190/ecie.20.1.4201 COLLEGE NANME Management School COLLEGE CODE CBAE Swansea University 2025-10-10T14:46:02.1750762 2025-09-24T12:52:48.1106015 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Management - Business Management Harrison Rees 1 Daniel Rees 0000-0003-0372-6096 2 Roderick Thomas 3 Hafwen Lewis 4 Zoe Coombs 0000-0002-9614-8127 5 Gareth Davies 0000-0001-7872-7574 6 70467__35310__835a53b25037434b9f359da7252a7b3c.pdf 70467.VoR.pdf 2025-10-10T14:33:59.6957921 Output 1045449 application/pdf Version of Record true Copyright (c) 2025 Harrison Rees, Daniel Rees, Roderick Thomas, Hafwen Lewis, Zoe Coombs, Gareth Davies. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
title	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
spellingShingle	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN Harrison Rees Daniel Rees Roderick Thomas Hafwen Lewis Gareth Davies
title_short	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
title_full	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
title_fullStr	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
title_full_unstemmed	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
title_sort	Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN
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author	Harrison Rees Daniel Rees Roderick Thomas Hafwen Lewis Gareth Davies
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description	This paper presents a practitioner report of two exemplar European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projects within Cymru (Wales). Namely analysing the AgorIP and Celtic Advanced Life Science Innovation Network (CALIN) business and research support projects within the context of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) (Cooke et al, 2004; Pino & Ortega,2018). Cymru has had a long history tied to innovation with Llywodraeth Cymru (Welsh Government) placing the need toencourage Research Development & Innovation (RD&I) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) competitiveness at the forefront of their vision for Cymru’s future economy. Both lead by Prifysgol Abertawe (Swansea University), the AgorIP and CALIN projects had different delivery models, AgorIP having secondees in external Cymru HEIs and GIG Cymru UHBs (NHS Wales University Health Boards) that supported the delivery at the main hub, and CALIN, a partnership between three Cymru and three Irish HEIs. Jointly supporting over 300 enterprises and organisations across their lifetimes, the projects' outcomes offer the potential to learn from previous publicly funded business support initiatives within the Cymru RIS. This paper will use these outcomes to inform future Cymru RIS support projects that could learn from and improve on the operations of those before it. These new projects should focus on sharing capabilities and avoiding duplication where possible,incorporating and utilising the individual capabilities and knowledge bases of Cymru's HEIs and Science Parks, with the ability to work on projects that combine organisations across Cymru and beyond. Further, the projects should adopt AI-enabled software as a ‘shopfront’ to engage with users, automate the creation of RIS networks, and provide business support templates and training that can be supplemented by additional support from project partners.
published_date	2025-09-19T05:30:58Z
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Enhancing Regional Innovation Systems in Cymru (Wales): Lessons from AgorIP and CALIN

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