R&D scheme 'to bring in £640m'

Published on Monday 7 December 2009 21:39

SCOTTISH Enterprise has claimed its research and development programme will attract £640 million of private sector investment to Scotland over the next ten years.

The economic agency yesterday published the results of an independent evaluation of the programme, which forecasts it could also lead to the creation of 28,500 Scottish jobs by 2019.

Since its establishment five years ago, the programme has led to 350m of private sector investment north of the Border. For every 1 of grants offered by Scottish Enterprise (SE), private sector companies have invested 7, the agency said.

So far 1,300 research and development jobs have been created as a result of the programme, but the agency hopes thousands more will be generated from the commercialisation of research.

The report was published as SE announced its latest grant. US engineering firm FMC Technologies is to invest 17.6m in an R&D centre at its Scottish base in Bellshill, Lanarkshire after SE extended a grant of 2.8m.

SE chairman Crawford Gillies said: "More than two-thirds of the private sector investment generated through the programme has come directly from companies headquartered outside Scotland, highlighting our growing international reputation as a first-class location for developing news ideas and technology."

The economic agency expects to attract 60m-70m of investment this year.