This morning’s Western Mail reports that Wales’ flagship Technium programme has been denounced as a “misguided” and “bizarre” initiative which has cost taxpayers more than £5.4m.
The Assembly Government project was designed to help new science and technology businesses flourish, providing accommodation and business support at centres across Wales.
But a Freedom of Information request has revealed that while £12.4m has been spent since 2001 the initiative has generated income of just £6.9m.
The paper reports that an Assembly Government spokesman has acknowledged concerns and signalled that under-performing sites could lose funding. He said: “As we recently announced in our new policy [document] Economic Renewal, a review into the Technium network is underway and due to be completed later this year. There remain concerns that while the buildings and the facilities they offer are a valuable asset for Wales, their performance has been mixed.
“We have implemented a new approach to Technium management to address these concerns. The new review will consider factors such as performance, occupancy, property cost and income for each Technium and cease to fund those Technium facilities where we are not getting a good return overall.
“Our new policy changes our business innovation support so that it is focused on the new key sectors and enables an end to end approach for commercialisation, making the most of links with academia.”
Liberal Democrat economy spokeswoman Jenny Randerson said: “Since 2001-02 ECM² in Port Talbot has lost £2.2m and so has Technium Cast in Bangor. The overall loss which is still significant masks huge losses for individual Techniums.
“They would have been better to hand the money to universities to attract top academics. This would be a self-perpetuating form of economic growth helping to create more organic clusters of expertise and innovation.
“In July of this year over £1,500 was spent on a Technium managers’ meeting so more and more good money is being thrown after bad. There are however a couple of successes which should not be thrown out with the many failed centres.
“I am extremely angry at yet another example of Labour-Plaid waste when Welsh universities are struggling to keep up with their English counterparts.”
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And yet the Technium concept was launched in 2001 when Jenny Randerson was acting deputy first secretary in the Assembly government. Liberal Democrats seem to have short memories – or does it simply take them nine years to decide they don’t like something?
That Technium management is a joke is not a reflection of decisions made back in 2001. Contra, Technium management is a joke c/o Ieuan Wyn Jones (IWJ) and more particularly the department IWJ runs or rather ‘runs badly’: DET (Department for the Economy and Transport). If it’s IWJ’s wish to keep the current awful Welsh GVA rating then full marks to IWJ! In all my dealings with Technium I’ve spotted one thread: lack of critical thinking. The sooner Technium ‘management’ is wrapped up and shipped out the better.
On the science R&D thread, Vincent Cable is spot on In re: “Business secretary Vince Cable will say in a speech today that there’s no justification for spending money on research that is ‘neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding” (excellent article by Alok Jha in The Guardian, Wednesday 8 September 2010).
This is such good news, the coalition government are waking up to the fact that GB (Great Britain) needs jobs and GB science should be more focused on that.
Wales too!
Though Ieuan Wyn Jones and his DET are simply floating somewhere in nowhere land.
Here’s an interesting quote (I believe from an article authored by Prof. Dylan Jones-Evans): “Chaired by Simon Gibson – the chief executive of Wesley Clover – it concluded that Welsh universities were sitting on a “GOLD MINE” of intellectual property that could be commercialised, thus bringing enormous benefits to the economy of Wales.” (Emphasis added in capitals.)’
Vincent Cable is taking it to the next level.
We can do the same in Wales!