A very warm welcome to this 2026 edition of SAIL magazine.
As our many of our alumni will attest, entrepreneurship is woven into Swansea University’s rich tapestry of success. As an institution founded by industry and for industry, the spirit of enterprise shapes everything that we do – from our teaching and research to our partnerships and civic engagement.
We are proud to have received external recognition which reflects the impact of these activities, including three nominations in the last five years for the Times Higher Education Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award, and nominations in 2025 for the Global Triple E Entrepreneurial Activators and the Strategic Partnership category at the Knowledge Exchange Awards. In terms of spin-out creation, we are currently ranked 4th in the UK and 11th for collaborative research and have been proud to host a Royal Society Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
We proactively promote and encourage entrepreneurship as part of our students’ educational journeys at Swansea, and it is therefore no surprise that many of our alumni have enjoyed extraordinary success as entrepreneurs. We are delighted to feature some of your stories in this edition: from Rhiannon Rees, who is using seaweed to replace oil based products in industrial packaging to Simon Reed, a leading expert in genome stability and co-founder of Broken String Biosciences, which is leading the way in improving the efficacy of gene editing therapies. We also hear from Gwyn Brooks who, more than 45 years ago and after discovering a new way of forming metal with fellow Swansea University metallurgy students, co-founded Osprey Metals; now, the premier supplier of advanced materials to the aerospace, medical and oil and gas industries.
Along with celebrating the fantastic success of our former students, we remain deeply committed to forging the way for our next generation of entrepreneurs, providing every opportunity to nurture our talent and employing new ways to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and skills in our students. We recently embedded an Innovative Thinkers characteristic as a key Graduate Attribute in our transformed curricula, designed to unlock potential and enhance career prospects for all future Swansea graduates. We were also delighted to launch the WE Innovate National Programme at Swansea last year; a fully-funded innovation programme for women-led teams.
The sheer talent and ingenuity shown by our Swansea alumni community never fails to inspire us or our students, and I hope that you are equally inspired by the snapshot of this success featured in this latest edition of SAIL.
