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

This paper presents a practitioner report of two exemplar European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) projectswithin Cymru (Wales). Namely analysing the AgorIP and Celtic Advanced Life Science Innovation Network (CALIN) businessand 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 theforefront of their vision for Cymru’s future economy. Both lead by Prifysgol Abertawe (Swansea University), the AgorIP andCALIN projects had different delivery models, AgorIP having secondees in external Cymru HEIs and GIG Cymru UHBs (NHSWales University Health Boards) that supported the delivery at the main hub, and CALIN, a partnership between three Cymruand three Irish HEIs. Jointly supporting over 300 enterprises and organisations across their lifetimes, the projects' outcomesoffer the potential to learn from previous publicly funded business support initiatives within the Cymru RIS. This paper willuse these outcomes to inform future Cymru RIS support projects that could learn from and improve on the operations ofthose 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 abilityto work on projects that combine organisations across Cymru and beyond. Further, the projects should adopt AI-enabledsoftware as a ‘shopfront’ to engage with users, automate the creation of RIS networks, and provide business supporttemplates and training that can be supplemented by additional support from project partners.