Business and academic powerhouses join forces
COLLABORATION between academia and innovative, pioneering businesses has gone from strength to strength over the past decade.
This is one reason why IoD Wales’ recent relocation to Cardiff Business School feels so natural and has such potential. And our members, when visiting, will be at the very heart of the most current and relevant research where businesses will benefit from academic input and insight.
We are very excited and see it as a terrific opportunity for our members to gain the opportunity to integrate with higher education on a significant scale. The benefits will be shared, I believe, by both sides and we fully intend to promote this collaboration between business and HE and, in doing so, foster a shared ambition for better skills and for creating joint learning and mentoring opportunities.
Our relocation also reflects IoD Wales’ drive to lead and influence government policy and instigate business collaborations and research.
I am sure our members will contribute greatly to the tangible energy and “buzz” at our new base. We are very much looking forward to the terrific opportunities for progression that this relocation provides – it is the perfect opportunity to interact with students as well as staff and match interns within bespoke mentoring opportunities.
PDR International Centre for Design and Research, based at Cardiff Metropolitan University, is working with healthcare and like-minded businesses to create world-class user-centric solutions. At the same university, FabLab has had a lifechanging impact with the manufacturing of objects such as bespoke prosthetic limbs, while the ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre there supports and informs local food and drink producers, as well as those further afield.
The University of South Wales’ Exchange, sponsored by Barclays, is similarly impactful and is part of the institution’s drive to support Wales’ start-up and entrepreneurial activities by honing in on increasing SME contributions to the economy, equipping students with relevant skills and enhancing the university’s status as an institution for business.
There really is no limit to the improvements and contributions we can make when the best of Welsh businesses join forces with our finest and brightest academics and researchers. While there are plenty of initiatives at our higher education providers that bring out the best in business/academic collaboration, the Institute for Compound Semiconductors at Cardiff University is a shining example and positions the institution as European leader in compound semiconductors, providing cutting-edge facilities.
And Swansea University’s Health and Wellbeing Academy, part of the £600m Arch project, is an exemplary collaboration between the university and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Hywel Dda health boards to improve healthcare delivery.
My dad used to say that you are judged by the company you keep, and we are certainly happy to be keeping company with Cardiff Business School at our new base at Cardiff University.
Attending our official launch at the prestigious Cardiff Business School faculty on Wednesday will be our principal guest, First Minister Carwyn Jones; Professor George Boyne, pro vice-chancellor at the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of public sector management; Professor Martin Kitchener, dean of Cardiff Business School; and our own director general, Stephen Martin.
Our members will thrive on the input of fresh, dynamic Business School students, who will in turn benefit from the experience and expertise our members offer. Our members will use our office as a hub, where hot-desking is welcome and on-site research facilities are second to none.
For me, it has already felt like coming home because I was at university here just over 30 years ago. While it feels like only yesterday, things have changed significantly. Cardiff Business School was good when I studied there, but it is great now.
It is one of only two UK business schools to have been ranked in the top 10 of each of the Government’s five research assessment exercises since 1992.
The school is also headline sponsor of our prestigious Director of the Year Wales Awards. The IoD has also always had very close links with the university and all that the School has to offer in terms of innovation, insight and world-leading researchWe very much look forward to working further with the School and all other first-class higher education providers in future.
Robert Lloyd Griffiths is director of IoD Wales.