More than 100 Welsh business last year benefited from the tech knowhow being offered by specialists based at the University of South Wales (USW).
The experts at Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technology (CEMET) were on hand to give small businesses help and advice on the development and use of emerging technology.
Established in 2017, CEMET was set up to design and test new mobile and emerging technologies to create products and services for commercial success, by providing a comprehensive package of support to develop products through road-mapping and knowledge transfer.
It initially received £4.2m of backing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Welsh Government, and offered support to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Valleys, West, and North Wales. The specialist operation expanded to cover the whole of Wales in 2019 with the launch of the £2.4m CEMET East project, with £1.2m of funding from the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO). This meant that the pan-Wales CEMET became a £8.9m project, with £5.5m of ERDF funding.
Having supported hundreds of SMEs during the past six years, 2022 saw CEMET work with a wide range of businesses, providing R&D support for 15 projects, advice and guidance to 58 firms, creating 17 products – five of which were market-ready – and delivering 17 CTO workshops.
The businesses supported by CEMET covered a range of sectors, including 10 from manufacturing and engineering; 11 focusing on finance and professional; nine in the healthcare, sport, and Wellbeing arenas; 12 in media and tech; five from the environment, agriculture, and energy sectors; and 11 in education and training.
One business’s concept brought to life by CEMET was for medical training company Goggleminds, which has developed virtual reality technology for training medics and students. It mirrors actual situations that medics are likely to be facing when doing their training, without the need to have real people on which to test their skills.
Goggleminds founder Azize Naji said of CEMET:
“The experience is great. From when we engaged with CEMET specialists we were able to talk about ideas, what we wanted to develop, and what it could look like.
“We really wanted to utilise their skills and experience to develop something. It was seamless. They made what was maybe a little bit complex, which we needed support with, very easy for us to understand.”
While Wales football legend Nathan Blake, who CEMET helped to develop a specialist app for sports commentators, said:
“We can't thank CEMET enough. They have been great to work with, and their invaluable help won't be forgotten by ourselves in future.”
Matt Smith, Commercial Manager of CEMET, said the support offered in 2022 has been the result of its continuing development over several years.
“While the headlines about CEMET may focus on its successes in the tech arena, its offerings go far beyond the final products,” he said.
“From our first meeting with potential clients, we look at what it is they want to achieve, and how we can help them to do that.
“Our specialists have a wide range of skills, from R&D, knowledge transfer, and the road-mapping processes required for an idea to come to fruition, and advise on the best way to get to get to the desired end-point.
“This, coupled with the expertise of our developers – the tech wizards – have led to some of the amazing successes we have small Welsh businesses achieve in 2022. We’re hoping 2023 will bring to life more of the forward-thinking ideas that our waiting to be discovered in Wales.”
