R&D programme creates jobs and investment for Scotland

A programme designed to encourage more Scottish based companies to invest in research and development will generate over £640 million for the Scottish economy over the next 10 years, it was revealed today.

An independent evaluation of Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) R&D programme published today looked at the results of the agency investing £55 million in 55 projects over the past five years.  The evaluation concluded that the programme has helped to generate a further £350 million of private sector investment, creating 1,300 R&D jobs with the potential to support 28,500 additional jobs in associated activities by 2019.

Details of the report were unveiled as Scottish Enterprise chairman Crawford Gillies visited FMC Technologies – the latest company to benefit from the programme after receiving a £2.8 million grant to help double the capacity of its Subsea Product Centre in Bellshill.

FMC Dunfermline will invest £17.6 million in the project over the next five years to support the creation of an Intervention R&D Centre at its facility in Bellshill, creating a number of new jobs.

Intervention systems developed by FMC are used to maintain and prolong the life of subsea oil wells. The work carried out at the R&D Centre will give FMC an advantage in developing intervention systems that oil and gas producers require to maximise production at their developments worldwide.

This is the second R&D project FMC’s Dunfermline operation has undertaken with support from SE.  In 2008, a new R&D facility was opened in Bellshill to develop Optoelectronics based products for the “Digital Oilfield” that created 17 new jobs. With today’s announcement, a substantial portion of the company’s global spend on subsea R&D will now be spent in Scotland at these two facilities. 

Crawford Gillies, Chairman of SE, said, “The investment by FMC Technologies is very good news for Scotland.  This project will help the company maintain its global leadership position in developing technology for the oil and gas sector and will underline Scotland’s position as a centre of excellence for research and development in the energy sector.

“The project is also an excellent illustration of how our R&D programme is helping to have a direct impact on Scotland’s economy and underlines the finding of today’s report.

“More than two thirds of the private sector investment generated through the programme has come directly from companies headquartered outside Scotland, highlighting our world class capabilities and growing international reputation as a first class location for developing new ideas and technology.”

David Currie, Managing Director of FMC Technologies in Dunfermline, said, “FMC is delighted and encouraged by the support of Scottish Enterprise with the announcement of this R&D plus grant. This support is directly focused in two key areas for ourselves, technology development and the creation and growth of innovative and technically led employment here in Scotland.

“Scott Hamilton, formerly our Engineering Manager at our main facility in Dunfermline, was recently appointed as FMC’s global manager of this new development for Intervention Products and Systems and will be based here at our Glasgow site. Under Scott’s stewardship we have already invested in new infrastructure, created new jobs, and actively expanded our graduate development programs to enable support for this.”

“FMC is the subsea market leader for the oil and gas industry. We are in the business of providing solutions, placing our customers first and keeping them ahead. This grant is another active demonstration of government and industry acting together to the benefit of Scotland’s place in the global market and the development of its workforce of the future.”

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said, “Innovative companies such as FMC Technologies which are continuing to expand show there are reasons to be optimistic about Scotland’s economic recovery prospects. The creation of 17 jobs in Bellshill is particularly encouraging in the current climate. Backed by R&D Grant support from Scottish Enterprise, FMC Technologies can make an important contribution towards sustaining Scotland’s reputation for research and development excellence.”

SE's R&D programme was established to help address historically low levels of private sector investment in research and development, together with other government support mechanisms such as the availability of R&D tax credits.

The report also highlighted that almost 60% of the projects would not have happened in Scotland without SE’s support, and a further 20% would have gone ahead but only on a much smaller scale.  More significantly, for those projects now complete, over two-thirds of the companies assisted have created new intellectual property as a result of the support, enhancing their Scottish R&D offering to their headquarters and improving their chance of securing additional R&D projects in the future.

At the time of the evaluation, 20 projects had been completed, with a further 35 currently in various stages of implementation.

Mr Gillies added, “These projects would simply not have happened in Scotland without our support, but with our support they are now embedded within our economy, creating much needed jobs and investment.”