Swansea University Estates Strategy

4. BAY SCIENCE AND INNOVATION CAMPUSThe new campus will fuse economic,educational and community growth andregeneration via the integration of anInnovation Hub as shown in Figure 2 opposite.The Innovation Hub concept at Swansea Universityrepresents skills development, academic research andresulting phased commercial exploitation of theUniversity’s research with industry in a variety ofcommercialisation models. The characteristics of anInnovation Hub include the following:• An area of demonstrable technical strength sufficientlydifferentiated from alternatives to offer clearcompetitive advantage to Wales.• An area with the potential to attract synergisticsupporting investment and collaboration, whetherthis be from private or public resources.• An area with the potential to create collaborativelinks, in both research and skills development,between Higher Education and Business.• An area in keeping with Government policyobjectives.The Innovation Hub produces spin out activities whichform part of regional Clusters. A Cluster is a group ofindependent firms and institutions (i.e. small andmedium enterprises, research bodies and educationalinstitutions) with common interests focused aroundresearch activity within an Innovation Hub.The aim of the Innovation Hub is to develop andsupport the Clusters to provide a mechanism forknowledge economy led economic development andregional regeneration including employment ofgraduates. It is envisaged that Science TechnologyEngineering and Mathematics (STEM) Clusters wouldinitially form across the Bay Campus, Park Campus (viathe Institute of Life Sciences), Velindre, Baglan and theSwansea dock redevelopment (SA1) areas.The Bay Campus will be established on a phased basiswith Phase One comprising the construction of anInnovation Hub together with teaching and studentfacilities. The Innovation Hub will comprise of theSchool of Engineering including the Institute ofAdvanced Technology (IAT) and Sports Science, Schoolof Business and Economics, linked business activitiesand some ancillary retail provision.An early example of the commercialisation of SwanseaUniversity’s research is the newly formed companySwansea Materials Research and Testing Ltd (SMART).A new building will be constructed, which will providetesting facilities linked with the work that the Universityhas undertaken with Rolls Royce over many years.The Bay Campus will also include undergraduateteaching, student support, ICWS and other facilitiesincluding student residences. Collectively these will seethe transfer of a major part of the University’s businessto the new campus at Fabian Way.Phase One of the Bay Campus non-residential estatewill have a GIA of just over 37,000m² (c. 30,000m²NIA). Of this, the Innovation Hub will comprisecirca 28,000m² GIA (c. 23,000m² NIA) and theteaching and student facilities circa 9,000m² GIA(c. 7,000m² NIA).These new facilities will accommodate activitiestransferring from the Park Campus. In turn, this willprovide the opportunity to address buildings whichare space and energy inefficient, not fit for purposeand in poor condition at Singleton.The Bay Campus responds to the request by industryfor increased space so as to be able to co-locateindustry research activities alongside academia.11