High-tech incubators open in Wales

17 Jun 2002

The Welsh Development Agency is to create a £50 million network of research incubators.

The incubators will link academic research to commercial operations. The agency claims that up to 50,000 jobs could be created by the "Technium" initiative.

The WDA believes that Technium could add more than £1 billion to the sales revenues of businesses over the next 12 months. The agency's £29 million contribution to the initiative is expected to bring about the doubling of industrial investment in R&D by 2003.

Sir David Rowe-Beddoe, chairman of the WDA, said: "We mean to provide world-class facilities and infrastructure to nurture local talent and attract leading knowledge-based international investors. Technium is the cornerstone of this project."

The prototype for Technium, a facility in Swansea, is already fully subscribed and has attracted Agilent, among others, to open an R&D unit, creating 26 jobs. Agilent will use the laboratory to develop equipment to automate fiber-optic manufacturing for Ipswich, UK, and Singapore factories.