0.6 Discussion  (Page 5/8)

Perspectives from the study underpinning this are described below.

Collaborative activities

• The high overall levels of satisfaction with collaboration, amongst respondents to the Collaborative questionnaire demonstrates the receptiveness and positive attitude of academics towards engaging in collaborations. This is an encouraging sign of acceptance.
• Participants in the TX/UK Collaborative demonstrate a stronger propensity for collaboration than the wider Academic community in Swansea, both for academic and industrial collaborations. This high level of activity suggests stronger linkages across their cluster, a key factor in establishing competitive advantage Porter (2000).
• The multidisciplinary nature of collaborators involved in the TX/UK Collaborative provides an interesting perspective of a more open culture within the cluster which fits with Porter and Sterns’ (1998) observation that not all actors within a cluster are necessarily aligned with a particular industry.
• The greater prevalence of activities to support collaboration amongst the TX/UK cohort suggests a stronger culture and valuation of collaboration.

Values

• The responsiveness of institutions and individuals in realizing collaboration opportunities is recognized as a key success factor amongst respondents to the stakeholder interview. In general there is a positive view of institutional responsiveness, though limitations are observed in the abilities of institutions to provide the levels of support and alignment required.
• From the Collaborative questionnaire, a positive view towards support and facilitation was also seen, however those involved in the TX/UK cohort with a wider perspective were most positive.

Economics

The heading ‘economics’ in the context of this study reflects the need to develop a sustainable cluster that creates true and measurable value, delivering a meaningful impact upon the region. The process starts with the identification of a sector that is relevant to the region and which has a global impact, offering markets with the commercial potential to contribute to the regional economy. Theoretically (or perhaps at least hypothetically), in a perfect world a region would gather together its key stakeholders, and with the benefit of the latest well-researched evidence arrive at evidence based consensus of which sector to develop, and the optimum approach. A holistic and integrated strategic plan would then be agreed and an implementation plan delivered. However, the world is imperfect and Wales is not a sufficiently coherent and cohesive community to deliver such an ordered solution. Despite this, in fairness to WAG, the regional government has published an economic development strategy “A Winning Wales” which together with further work defines the priority sectors as:

• Pharmaceuticals/Bio-Chemicals
• High technology
• Aerospace
• Agri-Food
• Construction
• Financial Services
• Creative Industries
• Automotive
• Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism
• Social Care

The WAG strategy does not contain the detail required to form the basis of a detailed regional plan. The implementation has therefore had to emerge ‘ground up’. The landscape of research in Wales is dominated by the HE sector as there is little large corporate R&D and the SME sector, active though it is, has not yet reached ignition point as a cluster. The University sector has been encouraged to compete by the funding model through instruments such as the Higher Education Economic Development (HEED) Fund. However, activities remain focused upon other major funding streams and their associated metrics, such as the Research Assessment Exercise, which is essentially a device designed to rank Universities to drive a formula for their financial reward. The RAE historically has not given ‘impact’ an equal weighting to more traditional academic metrics such as peer review articles, though there is currently much speculation as to how this will change under the Research Excellence Framework (REF).