Earnings
Of the half a million people who live within 30 minutes of Swansea, 39% fall within the high spending 16 – 44 age group.
Average gross weekly earnings for Swansea Bay for 2008 stood at £428 per week, marginally above the Welsh average.
Developing for the Future
Swansea has benefited from significant investment and employment growth in recent years. To build upon the success that has been achieved to date, an Economic Regeneration Strategy has been produced that will guide the regeneration of Swansea's economy over the next ten to fifteen years. Swansea 2020 is the strategic framework which will support economic regeneration in the City and County of Swansea aiming to make Swansea a proud, vibrant and ambitious city with an internationally competitive economy and Wales’ leading centre for the Knowledge Economy.
Swansea is already well on its way to achieving these aims with recent developments in key sectors of the local economy, and knowledge-intensive activities. These Focus Clusters are supported by the recent creation of several institutes and centres including Technium Digital, the Institute of Life Science, the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications and the Creative Industries Research and Innovation Centre.
Institute of Innovation (IN2)
Based at Swansea University the Institute of Innovation aims to bring university expertise to the region in a new system of ‘Open Innovation’. Its philosophy is collaborate in order to compete
www.in2.swansea.ac.uk
Institute of Life Science (ILS)
The ILS is based in a dedicated building at Swansea University and co-locates a range of interdisciplinary research and development activities. Research areas include cancer, diabetes, heart failure and asthma. ILS is home to the Blue C supercomputer, one of the world’s biggest and fastest computers, dedicated to medical research and is the base for the Boots Centre for Innovation (BCI). BCI is a partnership between Alliance Boots plc, Longbow Capital LLP and Welsh Assembly Government which aims to work closely with early stage companies and inventors from anywhere in the world to develop pioneering products for the shelves of Boots’ retail outlets. ILS II is currently under development
www.ils.swan.ac.uk/
Creative Industries Research and Innovation Centre (CIRIC)
CIRIC is based at Swansea Metropolitan and provides a unique and innovative support package to practitioners, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs to collaborate with others to develop the creative industries sector in Wales. The centre houses the latest technologies in the fields of Applied Arts, Textiles, New Media and Visual Communication.
www.sihe.ac.uk/ciric
Technium
Technium includes a network of state-of-the-art facilities across Wales served by the latest information technology and capabilities which offer an environment to enable knowledge-based start-up and spin-out companies to realise their potential. Strong partnerships forged between Technium and local Centres of Research Excellence provide specialist academic support for research & development projects. There are a number of Techniums based in the region:
Technium Swansea is located at 2 sites in the SA1 Waterfront development and supports knowledge-based businesses across a range of sectors such as ICT, software, multi-media, electronics and engineering.
Technium Digital is linked to the satellite Technium Digital@Sony which is based in Sony’s technology centre at Pencoed, Bridgend. It supports knowledge-based businesses specialising in digital technologies.
Technium Sustainable Technologies is based at Baglan, Port Talbot and supports young technology businesses creating commercial propositions around the area of sustainability.
Technium Performance Engineering in Llanelli is focused on the development of knowledge-based companies in performance engineering servicing the automotive, motorsport and/or aerospace sectors. The building incorporates an IBM Centre of Excellence in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and companies have access to this software and support in its use.
www.technium.co.uk/
The Engineering Centre for Manufacturing and Materials (ECM2)
Based in Port Talbot, ECM2 supports the development of modern manufacturing and innovative materials processing techniques. It has already helped over 31 companies undertake research and development projects in collaboration with academia. It is a 16 acre site offering a range of office and laboratory space, as well as a number of high headroom bays suitable for large scale engineering development activities.
http://wales.gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy/property/ecm2home/
