£1.2m business-academia tie-up aiming to drive innovation among Glasgow City Region firms

Project seen as showing key role of Scottish colleges in the innovation and enterprise landscape.

Glasgow Kelvin College is among the six participating colleges. Picture: contributed.

A seven-figure initiative marrying academia and business is aiming to drive innovation among hundreds of firms and help foster economic growth in the west of Scotland. The 12-month College Local Innovation Centres (CLIC) pilot project, funded by the Innovate UK Further Education Innovation Fund, is creating six innovation hubs at colleges across the Glasgow City Region, to help businesses – in sectors including health, sustainability, and digital – access help with embedding and embracing new ways of operating.

It is hoped that more than 200 companies across Glasgow, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and West Dunbartonshire will benefit from the £1.2 million-plus project, which starts at the end of March, and is part of a UK-wide push by national innovation agency Innovate UK that will see £7.3m invested in nine projects across 33 colleges.

Six colleges across the Glasgow City Region will host the innovation hubs, comprising the Centre for Digitally Enabled Health – New College Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire; Centre for Sustainable Development – South Lanarkshire College, South Lanarkshire; Centre for Advanced Manufacturing – West College Scotland, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire; Centre for Digital Enablement – Glasgow Kelvin College; and Centre for Innovation Leadership – City of Glasgow College, Centre for Digital Creativity – Glasgow Clyde College; all Glasgow.

Stella McManus, principal of South Lanarkshire College, and a member of the College West Partnership Group, said: "This is a significant moment for the Glasgow City Region, and further highlights the crucial role the college sector will play in collaborating with the business community to drive innovation across Scotland.

“Innovate UK has recognised the importance of Scottish colleges in the innovation and enterprise landscape, and the role our institutions play in leading economic and social transformation. This sector-first opportunity and collective approach brings six colleges together to deliver on innovation and economic priorities, and will underpin the ambitions of the business community across the city region and Scotland."

Innovate UK’s recent activity in Scotland includes facilitating a major new funding boost of almost £500,000 for Bioliberty, a medtech start-up based on the outskirts of Edinburgh that has created a robotic glove to help rehabilitate stroke patients.