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1. Introduction and context
1.1 SQW Ltd (SQW) was appointed by Swansea University in July 2022 to undertake a Final Evaluation of the Legal Innovation Lab Wales operation. This follows Inception and Mid-Term Evaluations completed in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
About the Legal Innovation Lab Wales
1.2 The Legal Innovation Lab Wales (‘LILW’) was a £4.95 m, part-ERDF funded operation under the West Wales and the Valleys programme 2014-20. Specifically, the operation was funded under Priority Axis 1: Research and Innovation, and is expected to deliver against Specific Objective 1.1: to, “ increase the success of Welsh research institutions in attracting competitive and private research funding ” , and the associated result indicator of an increase in research income amongst HEIs.
1.3 Located within the School of Law’s Digital Technium building, the operation combined new purpose-built facilities, with additional expert research and technical capacity in three areas:
• LegalTech : focused on supporting the development of legal innovations, prototypes and toolkits, underpinned by research into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
• Cyber Threats : focused on supporting research to advance understanding of cybercrime, terrorist groups’ exploitation of new technologies, online grooming, misinformation, fake news and criminal internet use, and the development of cyber-security/terrorism prototypes/toolkits.
• Law Clinic : designed to support the access to justice agenda through facilitating the trialling and scoping of LegalTech innovations to address real world legal issues.
1.4 Delivery of the operation commenced in August 2019, with a formal project announcement by Welsh Government and Swansea University in October 2019. The close date for the operation is June 2023.
1.5 The operation included both capital and revenue elements:
• Capital funding from ERDF (£0.75m), to fund the design, procurement, and construction of a c.700 sqm facility comprising an: AI and Law Laboratory, a Cyber Threats Suite, a LegalTech R&D Centre, a Law Clinic (part-eligible for ERDF support 1 ), and an Executive Boardroom.
1 The focus of the project in relation to the Law Clinic was to fund the development of the space for prototype testing, not its wider remit (provision of pro bono legal advice), which is not within the scope of the ERDF eligible project.
Legal Innovation Lab Wales
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