Business incubation

There’s a vibrant life science cluster in south west Wales, and it’s at the ILS. The Business Incubation Suite offers so much more than contemporary office accommodation; it brings you closer to scientists and experts in medicine and other fields across Swansea University from Engineering to Economics to Law. You’ll also get access to laboratory facilities and be part of the growing band of companies based here.

Affiliate Membership

Affiliate Membership is the ILS’s newest offering.  A ‘soft landing’ option, it has been developed for organisations and individuals that are not yet ready to base themselves permanently at the ILS, but want access to its facilities and expertise.  Membership provides early stage businesses with one of the swiftest and most effective ways of developing a relationship with ILS, as well as accessing many of the benefits of being part of the growing life science cluster.  It is a useful pre-cursor to becoming a Client Organisation of ILS but is also available to more established businesses interested in collaborating with the ILS and networking with others already based here. 

Research collaboration

With hundreds of active researchers, four floors of laboratories, an imaging suite and clinical research facility, the ILS offers expertise in laboratory-based biomedical research, public health, population sciences and health services research and more. Nearly 90% of ILS research is independently judged as international or world-leading standard and we’re used to working with all sizes and stages of organisation. If you have a problem you need to solve, maybe one of our researchers can help.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is a UK-wide, part-government funded programme enabling businesses to improve their competitiveness by accessing knowledge, technology and skills from the UK’s academic and research organisations.  Knowledge is embedded into companies through projects undertaken by a recently qualified person recruited for the purpose.  KTPs can vary in length from ten weeks to three years depending on the level of investment, support and desired outcome.  Contact the Business Development Team to find out more. 

Events and Conferences

The ILS has a dedicated café and fully-equipped conference facility, which can host up to 80 people, as well as The Hub, an informal meeting space for up to 60 people that boasts spectacular views across Swansea Bay and a rooftop terrace.  All events and conferences are supported by the ILS’s experienced events management team and benefit from access to on-site catering at very reasonable rates.  The ILS also runs a calendar of events throughout the year, from weekly research seminars to monthly BioBreakfasts and more.  To receive notification of events, email ilscommunications@swansea.ac.uk.  

Enabling Technologies

The ILS provides a unique infrastructure for academia and industry with key enabling technologies.  These include, but are not limited to:

• Blue C, built by IBM, is one of the very few supercomputers in the world dedicated to life science research and it has a permanent home at Swansea University. 
• The EPSRC National Mass Spectrometry Service Centre (NMSSC) offers a comprehensive mass spectrometry service for university research groups throughout the UK. 
• The Health Information Research Unit for Wales (HIRU) harnesses the potential of routinely collected electronic data to support and undertake research. 
• The NHS Wales Informatics Research Laboratories, jointly run by the College of Medicine and the NHS Wales Informatics Service, aims to support real patient benefits through the delivery of healthcare IT innovations centred on the patient. 
• The eHealth Industries Innovation (ehi2) Centre is a business-facing centre for the eHealth industries, supporting the development of eHealth sector in Wales.

Enabling Facilities

The second phase of the ILS has brought with it a very unique offering of facilities, all of which work as stand-alone and complementary initiatives.  The three brand new facilities are:

• Clinical Imaging Suite, which comprises a full complement of human clinical imaging capabilities. It contains a Siemens 3T Magnetom Skyra, Siemens Somatom CT scanner and syngio Viao image processing server plus contrast injection systems for both MRI and CT, a cannulation suite, image processing/reporting room, interview room and fully accessible changing facilities. The systems available allow the application in both conventional and advanced fields of medical imaging, which require custom designed imaging protocols.
• Clinical Research Facility, home to highly trained research staff recruiting and executing studies from Phase II to Phase IV.  It provides efficient support to commercial, peer-funded and investigator generated investigators and undertakes an extensive therapeutic range of studies in both medicines and devices.  Expertise at the facility includes protocol writing, submission to Regulatory Authorities, negotiating finance contracts, project co-ordination, data collection documents and data management and collation.  Having been established since 1990, it also boasts a wealth of experience in studies in the fields of diabetes, neurology, urology, transfusion, orthopaedics and cardiovascular, renal, respiratory and genito-urinary medicine.  
• Centre for NanoHealth (CNH), a £21.6m joint initiative between the Colleges of Medicine, Science and Engineering at Swansea University, in partnership with the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.  It is the first state-of-the-art NanoHealth facility of its kind in Europe and brings together the expertise of clinicians, life scientists, engineers and industry to develop cutting-edge technologies and devices for the benefit of patients everywhere.  One of the biggest challenges facing the future of healthcare is enhancing early intervention in diagnosing and treating diseases in non-hospital environments; in the home, community clinic or local doctors’ surgery.  Technology – in particular nanotechnology – is seen as the key to early intervention by providing the earliest possible detection of disease and the swiftest identification of appropriate medical or surgical treatments so CNH has an increasingly important and strategic role to play in furthering our ability to detect and treat disease.  

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