BEACON is a European funded project
and it's there to provide facilities and
expertise to SMEs and larger companies in
West Wales and the Valleys.
We've been working with Agroceutical Products to help
them develop their process for
extracting Galanthamine from daffodils
Agroceutical Products is a Welsh company
company based in Blaenau Gwent with a
presence in the innovation campus in Aberystwyth
The company is set up to produce
the Alzheimer's drug Galanthamine from daffodils
grown in the Welsh mountains.
The Alzheimers population is outstripping the
supply of Galanthamine in the world and
typically the normal source from
wildflowers is being denuded.
There's a strong correlation between the Galanthamine
level found in daffodils and the altitude they're grown at.
This provides an opportunity for Wales to utilize the
natural resources we have to make a
significant benefit both to the Welsh
economy but also to provide Welsh hill farmers
with an additional income by
producing Galanthamine for a world that
is desperately in need of it.
In Aberystwyth we have pilot-scale
equipment and know how to provide that
vital support to Agroceutical products to
help develop their process.
The BEACON 'try-before-you-buy' approach allowed us
to evaluate a range of technologies
using their equipment and expertise to
identify a mechanism which best suited our need.
In Wales there's a lot of
innovative, inventive people coming up
with brilliant ideas, tends to be at bench-scale.
BEACON can provide access to
know-how and pilot facilities to take those
bench-scale ideas up to pilot
and demonstration level so that they can
actually develop them to go for capital
investment and grow the company
Workways+ is a European funded
project operating across South West Wales
and we support people who are
long-term unemployed and have
difficulties, multiple barriers
preventing them from moving into employment
Every participant is allocated an individual mentor
who would work with them to tailor support
to best address their barriers to work .
We've been working with Workways for a considerable time
All our experience has being totally positive
I think the difference between Workways and normal
providers is one they take time to
select the right people.
I was out of work because i hurt my back,
I couldn't do the job as a care assistant for many, many years
and then I wanted to find a job,
I was referred to Workways to help me.
They found me a work placement and I enrolled in college
to do Business & Admin
and I did loads of computer courses
and I did Sage at Neath college
I applied for loads of jobs
and they took me on interviews, and I had an interview here
and I had a taster day.
They showed me all the different things they did,
how they used their computers
because of course, they have their own system
and at the end of the day they offered me a job.
I would recommend Workdays
I thought they were very good and I think they helped
a lot of people that needed to get back to work
that couldn't do it by themselves, like myself.
I had a lot of support from them.
Without EU funds the project wouldn't exist and
there wouldn't be the support there for the people who need it the most.