Scottish Enterprise funding set to generate £700 million of innovation activity for nation

Support provided by Scottish Enterprise is forecast to generate more than £700 million of innovation expenditure, according to new figures.

The national economic agency approved £120m in grant funding and equity investment for innovation activities in the 2021-22 financial year, which is now calculated to deliver a further £502m innovation investment from the private sector alongside some £86m from public sector partners.

A total of 260 projects are being supported, delivering an array of innovations from private firms developing solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, to new spin-outs from Scotland’s universities and “vital infrastructure” in the form of Scotland’s innovation centres.

Adrian Gillespie, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said: “Scottish companies are innovating to create greater opportunities for a more prosperous future, as well as delivering solutions to global challenges in areas like climate change, advanced manufacturing and life sciences. It’s great to see a sustained appetite among our business base to continue investing in innovation despite the current headwinds, while at the same time the private and public sectors continue to invest significantly in our first-class innovation centres. These activities will ensure Scotland remains a leading innovation nation,” he added.

The supported projects include Australian firm BigTinCan’s plans to expand its Glasgow software development centre, following confirmation of a funding package from Scottish Enterprise worth £1.4m. BigTinCan specialises in developing software for use by companies’ salesforces, to help improve their customers’ experiences. Scottish Enterprise also announced a grant award of £2.5m to Scotch whisky maker North British Distillery. The funding will allow the company to develop and deliver a modernised distilling process, with the aim of significantly reducing its carbon footprint.

Scottish Enterprise has also continued its funding support as a partner to a number of innovation centres, including the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University, the Advanced Forming Research Centre in Renfrew, the Net Zero Technology Centre in Aberdeen and the Censis centre for sensing, imaging and the internet of things (IOT) at the University of Glasgow.

Business and enterprise minister Ivan McKee said: “Through our enterprise agencies we are supporting business and industry to adopt the innovative technologies and processes that will help increase their resilience and capacity for growth. In Scotland, it is vital that we utilise innovation to grow the economy, create jobs and deliver on our net zero ambitions, to be one of the most innovative small nations in the world. This winter, we will publish a new national innovation strategy for Scotland, ensuring that our businesses, people and institutions are ready to meet the global economic challenges we face over the next ten years, and grasp opportunities.”

Research by Young Company Finance (YCF) has tracked the impact of Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spin-out Programme (HGSP) over the last ten years. A total of 34 companies were created in this time, spinning out from ten universities. Of these, 29 (88 per cent) are still trading today. Scottish Enterprise said this was a much greater percentage than expected for the high-risk start-ups sector.