Entrepreneurship is a strategic cornerstone of Swansea University’s vision and culture. As one of the institution’s five strategic pillars and rooted in its founding principle—created by industry, for industry— enterprise permeates every aspect of our work—from teaching and research to partnerships and civic engagement. This integrated approach has enabled us to cultivate a dynamic, inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that delivers tangible social and economic impact at regional, national, and international levels.

Our 2023–28 Institutional Enterprise Strategy focuses on three key themes: unlock talent, enabling environment, and impact in place. We nurture innovation across the university community, ensuring all staff, students, graduates, and partners can engage with and benefit from entrepreneurial activity, regardless of background. We are proud signatories of the Charter for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, championing diversity and removing barriers to underrepresented groups.

Swansea University has earned its reputation as an entrepreneurial university through a strong commitment to innovation, enterprise, and real-world impact. We have built a robust ecosystem through strategic funding mechanisms including a Founders Fund (supporting student and graduate start-ups) and UKRI Impact Acceleration Accounts, enabling researchers across Swansea University to develop flexible, creative and tailored approaches to increase and accelerate the impact of their research. These resources support entrepreneurship at every level, resulting in 94 secondments, 376 innovation projects, 54 patents, 10 licenses, 22 spinouts, and over 366 business start-ups. In 2024, we also launched our Impact Fellowship Scheme, enabling researchers to access funding to “buy out” their teaching commitments, and focus on accelerating the impact and commercial potential of their research and innovation. We have already seen success with our recent spinout AilArian.

Entrepreneurship is embedded across the student journey. Our undergraduate curriculum includes entrepreneurial competencies and behaviours as a core graduate attribute. Extracurricular opportunities such as Hackathons, business bootcamps, start-up to CEO alumni mentoring, and pitch competitions further enhance student development, reaping successes such as Imersifi. For Postgraduate Researchers, tailored enterprise training and funding support helped create successful spinouts like Corryn Biotechnologies and CanSense.

Our graduates and spinouts are driving job creation and economic growth across Wales and beyond. Through our inclusive, collaborative and impactful model, Swansea University is setting a new benchmark for entrepreneurial higher education.

As a result, in the last 5 years, Swansea has been shortlisted three times in the Times Higher outstanding Entrepreneurial University Category. Swansea has also been recognised for its contribution to Knowledge Exchange and partnership development and ranked Runner–up European Entrepreneurial University in 2024, 3rd as Global Entrepreneurial Activators in 2025, 4th in UK for spinouts (according to the most recent UK Government Spinout register),2nd in Wales for graduate start-ups and 11th for collaborative research income (according to HEBCI 2024), reflecting both our breadth and depth.

Ultimately, Swansea University’s entrepreneurial identity is not just about starting businesses—it’s about cultivating a mindset of innovation, resilience, and impact. Whether through our entrepreneurial curriculum, competitions, global collaborations, or community engagement, Swansea empowers students and staff to think creatively, act boldly, and make a difference.