Scottish Enterprise launches new £9.2m fund to drive Scottish business innovation

It provides support and funding for innovation challenges and helps to coordinate access to multiple sources of open innovation assistance, such as Innovate UK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), CivTech and Scottish Enterprise innovation support.

Over the last few months the Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund team invited Scotland’s public sector to submit their first challenges. Forty-three expressions of interest were received from a variety of public sector organisations and were evaluated competitively.

From those challenges, five have been selected and are being supported.

These are:

Businesses are able to view full details of these challenges and register their interest in any of them on www.scottish-enterprise.com/can-do-innovation-challenge-fund.

The Fund will be formally launched by Scottish Government Minister for Business, Energy and Innovation Paul Wheelhouse during his speech at the Fund launch event in Edinburgh later today.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Mr Wheelhouse said: “Scotland’s Can DO Innovation Challenge Fund addresses one of the biggest barriers to successful innovation among SMEs today – finding that first customer or market. This new £9.2 million fund will provide public sector agencies with the opportunity to find innovative private sector led solutions to challenges they face.

“Scotland’s innovation performance has improved in recent years, but there is more to do to meet our long term ambitions which are to see Scotland as a recognised leader in the development, commercialisation and adoption of cutting edge products and services. As well as our Innovation Action Plan, the First Minister announced £45m increase in R&D grant funding over the next three financial years in the latest Programme for Government.

“Our ambition is clear: to create a culture in Scotland that supports businesses to use innovation to grow, all underpinned by a clear, easy to navigate, well-connected system of information, advice and support.”

Jim Watson, Director of Innovation and Enterprise Services at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Increasing business innovation is critical to maintaining Scotland’s global competitiveness. The Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund is a powerful tool for us to help smaller businesses collaborate with large organisations they may not otherwise have access to, and provide funding to develop their ideas.

“We’re making excellent progress in encouraging more Scottish businesses to embrace innovation to open up new global markets, with Scottish companies securing over half of the recent R&D funding contracts with NHS Scotland to drive innovative patient care.

“Research shows that businesses actively innovating are twice as likely to grow and three times more likely to export successfully, and we know from other open innovation schemes that participating businesses increase their sales by around 30 per cent. We want to support many more businesses to embed innovation as part of their business strategy and this new Fund is a fantastic route to help us achieve this.”