£30m cash from SFC for Scots life sciences industry

SCOTLAND’S life sciences industry yesterday welcomed a £30 million cash injection from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which could help companies to create more than 2,000 jobs.

Anna Dominiczak, vice-principal and professor of medicine at Glasgow University. Picture: Contributed

The funding will be used to open three science innovation centres, which will bring together businesses, hospitals and universities to develop technology for improving healthcare.

The £20m Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre (SMS-IC) at Glasgow Southern General Hospital will develop personalised treatments based on individual patients’ genes for diseases including cancer, diabetes and stroke.

Four universities and four NHS trusts will contribute to the SMS-IC, which will also receive input from eight companies, including Dundee University spin-out Aridhia and New York-listed Life Technologies.

David Sibbald, chief executive at Aridhia, said: “We can change the way in which healthcare is delivered forever.”

Sibbald explained that Aridhia will supply the software and expertise to handle large volumes of data, while Life Technologies will provide the equipment for examining genes.

Anna Dominiczak, vice-principal and professor of medicine at Glasgow University, said: “The SMS-IC is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine our strengths in life science industry, NHS health delivery and academic medicine to produce world-leading innovations for treatment of chronic diseases.”

The SFC will contribute £8m to the cost of the SMS-IC, while the industrial partners will provide cash and free services.

Glasgow will also host the £10m Sensor & Imaging Systems Innovation Centre (SIS-IC), which brings together 11 universities and 22 firms to develop sensors for the aerospace, biotechnology and energy sectors.

Big industrial players backing the centre include BAE Systems, BP and Perth-based SSE.

Edinburgh University’s Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHC-IC) is expected to work on more than 260 projects over the next five years to develop technologies that will help save the NHS money. The university hopes companies working with the DHC-IC will also bid for work across Europe.

Funding for all three innovations centres was unveiled by First Minister Alex Salmond during a visit to the Glasgow Southern General Hospital.

Scott Johnstone, chief executive of the Scottish Lifesciences Association (SLA) trade body, believed it was “realistic” that companies working in the areas covered by the three centre could create more than 2,000 jobs.

“Personalised medicine will at some point deliver large number of jobs and we’re already on that journey,” he said.

“The SFC funds university research and it’s good to see that the cash is being spent on applied science. We’re delighted to see this will help to generate economic value for Scotland.”