R&D at top of agenda for Scottish businesses

During October to December, the agency supported 35 extra projects through its various innovation funds, which are aimed at helping companies increase their competitiveness by developing new products and processes.

In total, SE awarded 2.87m of innovation grant support while the companies themselves invested 5.88m.

David Smith, innovation and enterprise services director at SE, said R&D was a critical factor in helping Scotland reach its full economic potential.

"While Scotland still has a relatively low level of R&D spend compared to the rest of the UK, recent research shows that more companies in Scotland invested in R&D projects in 2009 compared to the previous year, with spend increasing by 13.7 per cent," he said.

"Scotland is clearly making progress in increasing investment in the development of new products and services, including working with its universities and other institutions to successfully translate research ideas into economic benefit.

"This all helps in our efforts to grow the economy and create an environment where ambitious companies are creating jobs and investing in growth."

Companies across a range of sectors have benefited from the grants.

Midlothian-based MiiCard accepted a 29,000 grant towards its 99,000 investment to develop an online identity validation service.

CHE-EVC, based in Comrie, got 70,000 towards a 133,000 project to develop an "intelligent" battery system capable of delivering variable power to electric vehicles.

Edinburgh-based Calvatec was given a 600,000 award from Smart:Scotland, a programme which provides financial assistance to SMEs to support projects which represent a "significant technological advance" for the UK sector or industry concerned. Calvatec is working on technology for the semiconductor industry that could cut the cost of the increasingly complex chips found at the core of modern electronics products.