5.3 Research centres Swansea University is home to the Legal Innovation Lab Wales 368 , an operation funded by Welsh Government and WEFO through the European Regional Development Fund. The centre supports research in legal technology, cyber threats and cyberterrorism 369 , and has a team of developers that collaborate with academic researchers to develop prototypes and proofs of concept. Cardiff University has a Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, whose remit includes “emergent technologies and crime, including cyber-crime 370 ”, the Centre for Innovation Policy Research 371 , and the Social Science Research Park 372 , which includes a space for start-ups and industry partnerships. 373 The University of South Wales hosts the Centre of Excellent in Mobile and Emerging Technologies (CEMET) 374 , which aims to work with Welsh SMEs and academics “to create innovative products and services for your business that will shape the future”. 375 5.4 Brief considerations on LegalTech education in Wales The Thomas Commission report highlighted shortcomings in the LegalTech offering of Welsh Universities in 2019. Four years later, it appears that the call to action of the Thomas Commission has led to significant and positive changes, whose effects on the LegalTech talent pool in Wales should be felt in the coming years. Welsh HEIs now offer two LLM courses in legal technology (Swansea University and University of South Wales), a good range of optional modules for undergraduate students (although only the University of South Wales has a compulsory legal technology module in its curriculum), and an environment that supports interdisciplinary research into legal technology and engagement with the industry, in particular at Cardiff University, Swansea University and the University of South Wales. South Wales is once again proving ahead of other regions in Wales, in terms of its engagement with legal technology within universities, although expertise and limited educational offerings exists in west and north Wales too, as discussed above. There appear to be at least three areas of opportunities for improvement of the current educational landscape for legal technology in Wales: 368 See https://legaltech.wales/. 369 Swansea University, “Cyber Threats Research Centre”, available at https://www.swansea.ac.uk/law/cytrec/. 370 Cardiff University, Cardiff Centre for Crime, Law and Justice”, available at https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/research/explore/research-units/cardiff-centre-for-crime-law-and-justice. 371 Cardiff University, “Centre for Innovation Policy Research”, available at https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/research/explore/research- units/centre-for-innovation-policy-research. 372 Cardiff University, “Social Science Research Park”, available at https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/social-science-research-park/about- us. 373 Cardiff University, “Cardiff Innovations @sbarc”, available at https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/innovation/innovation- campus/cardiffinnovations-at-sbarc. 374 Cemet, “Home”, available at https://www.cemet.wales/. 375 Ibid.
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