SCI created/safeguarded nearly 400 jobs since 2010

The Sporting Chance Initiative (SCI) has worked with more than 500 companies, supporting some 300 jobs and creating a further 88.

Now the SCI is gearing up for a final push before it comes to the end of its project as it helps firms to gear up for next year’s Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup. Data collected by the SCI shows that businesses with which the organisation has worked have increased spending on research and development by more than £600,000 and have grown their turnover by a collective £450,000.

But project manager Alison Denny said that those figures were based only on companies that had volunteered information so far and that the final totals will be “much higher” and probably “in the millions of pounds”.

Denny added: “Companies that we’ve worked with have created 33 products and services and four patents have been registered so far.”

Businesses that have worked with SCI include Scottoiler, a Glasgow-based motorbike lubricant maker that was helped to branch out into the push-bike sector.

The £1.5 million SCI project, which is handing out £500,000 in grants to businesses, was funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Scottish Funding Council, Stirling Council, Stirling University and the Stirling University Innovation Park.