Embedding innovation and entrepreneurship in Wales

Cardiff Business School hosts Welsh Government workshop for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP).

The Postgraduate Teaching Centre welcomed more than 40 delegates to a workshop bringing together academia, corporate business and entrepreneurial stakeholders on Friday 14 October 2016. This was the second of three events being held across Wales, organised by Welsh Government, and in support of the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP).

REAP is a prestigious global programme from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is designed to accelerate economic growth and job creation through innovation-driven entrepreneurship.

The three events are an opportunity for relevant parties to feed in to economic policy development and identify new opportunities to grow innovation and entrepreneurship in Wales. Each breakfast workshop is facilitated by Dr Paul T Thomas and provides an introduction to REAP and its objectives before exploring ways in which the delegates can use their personal networks and spheres of influence to assist in making Wales a better place for innovation and entrepreneurship to develop.

Professor Simon Gibson, Chief Executive of Wesley Clover and a member of Cardiff Business School’s International Advisory Board, is Chair of the MIT REAP Wales panel and was a speaker at the event.

The breakfast workshop was well attended and delegates were highly engaged, sparking a lively discussion and generating real insight into how academia, business, entrepreneurs and government can work in partnership to achieve the REAP ambitions.

Professor Rick Delbridge, Professor of Organisational Analysis at Cardiff Business School and Cardiff University’s Dean of Research, Innovation & Enterprise, said: “We were delighted to host the REAP event here at the Business School. Innovation and entrepreneurship are central to the Business School's activities and to the strategic developments at the University, most obviously in regard to the new Innovation Campus that we are creating on the Maindy Road site.”

The MIT Wales REAP panel consists of seven ‘Champions’ working alongside Professor Gibson. They are: Ashley Cooper, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, Professor Hilary Lappin-Scott, Daniel Mines, Dr Drew Nelson, Hayley Parsons and James Taylor. The Wales panel forms part of Cohort Three (of three) and partner regions include Bangkok (Thailand); Tokyo (Japan); Beijing (China); South West Norway; Santiago (Chile); Ashdod (Israel) and Al Madinah (Saudi Arabia).  The cohort will facilitate a community of practice, peer learning, idea exchange, benchmarking and discussion of global good practice.