Five firms progressing collaborations with Scots universities after £50k backing from Inward Investment Catalyst Fund

Funding boost to support “five innovative projects marrying ambitious companies who value Scotland as a place of opportunity with the excellent academic expertise and facilities we have here”.

Five companies are taking forward “exciting” and “innovative” collaborations with universities north of the Border after receiving a collective £50,000 funding boost as part of an initiative seeking to up the appeal of Scotland as an attractive location for inward investment.

The group of four firms based in England and one in Singapore are making the Scottish in-roads after being awarded the sums through the Inward Investment Catalyst Fund. The latter initiative was launched by Interface – an organisation that “enables business-academic collaborations for economic and societal benefit” – and the Scottish Government to support businesses not yet located in Scotland to work with its academic institutions.

The five projects that have each been awarded about £10,000 with their partner university are described as supporting a net-zero, health and wellbeing economy, and including advancements in hydrogen energy technology as well as the creation of a heated desk. Specifically, Extend Robotics (based in Reading) and Edinburgh Heriot-Watt University have been given their capital boost to study the impact of a remote robotic training system used by non-technical operators in various industry settings, while SunGreenH2 (Singapore) and the same academic institution are being bankrolled to validate their solar panel integrated electrolyser performance in green hydrogen generation, accounting for seasonal differences.

MSP Richard Lochhead says: 'Through the delivery of the Inward Investment Plan, the Scottish Government will continue to help ensure we make the most of our competitive advantages and strengths to maintain our position as a leading destination for inward investment.' Picture: contributed.

Moving west along the M8, Green Flow Energy (of Worcestershire) and Glasgow Caledonian University have been given their funding for a feasibility study into developing technology that captures kinetic energy through airflow created by electric buses to increase its operating range, and Okoform (based in Dorset) and the University of Strathclyde are being backed to model the effect of their heated desks on energy usage and office air temperature through an advanced thermal modelling framework across various scenarios.

The final project on the list is Liverpool's Simul Software and the University of St Andrews, who are using their share to further develop their Teleport protocol for apps using extended reality in the cloud by testing the technology in commercial gaming systems and the heritage sector.

Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s minister for small business, innovation, tourism and trade, said: “The Inward Investment Catalyst Fund is not only paving the way for great collaboration between prospective investors and our highly esteemed universities and academia, but also helping deliver on our ambition for Scotland to be an increasingly attractive location for inward investment.

“The early impacts of the fund have been extremely positive, and I am pleased to see another successful round of applications set to support more exciting projects. Through the delivery of the Inward Investment Plan, the Scottish Government will continue to help ensure we make the most of our competitive advantages and strengths.”

Howell Davies, Interface’s head of strategic programmes and funding, said: “I am delighted to see another round of strong applications which has yielded five innovative projects marrying ambitious companies who value Scotland as a place of opportunity with the excellent academic expertise and facilities we have here.”

The funding news comes after Scottish Enterprise in November said it had supported the highest-ever number of academic spin-outs via its High Growth Spinout Program.