Scotland's latest innovative research projects announced

The latest innovative projects from Scotland's universities and research institutions to be supported by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept Programme were announced at an awards ceremony yesterday (12 March 2008) at The Hub, Edinburgh.

The projects, which form part of the Programme's Round 8 awards, were chosen for support as they have the potential to result in innovative spin-out companies and/or licensing agreements to existing businesses, which will ultimately help grow Scotland's economy. Each project awarded support has to demonstrate the quality of the research idea and the market demand for the resulting product or service.

The projects being announced today, by industry sector, are:

Life Sciences

  • A range of inexpensive skin patch solar UV indicators which show a colour change when the wearer is about to sunburn (University of Strathclyde)

  • A non-invasive way of monitoring patients' health without the need for taking blood samples, leading to better patient monitoring on the ward or at home (University of Strathclyde)

  • A process to allow tissue metabolic activity to be determined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the first time, which will help diagnose and treat a range of clinical conditions such as stroke, heart attack, cancer and epilepsy (Greater Glasgow Health Board)

Electronic Markets

  • Spoken dialogue software tools which make it easier for businesses, such as call centres, to develop more natural, flexible automated conversations with customers (University of Edinburgh)

Enabling Technologies and Engineering

  • A process that cleans and treats seawater and groundwater water using renewable energy from the sun or wind. The process will also remove inorganic pollutants such as arsenic, fluoride, uranium, nitrate and other compounds which can be responsible for health problems (University of Edinburgh)

The Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Programme has awarded funding of just over £1 million to these five projects following in-depth feasibility studies to ensure that the commercial opportunities for each project are maximised.

These are the final five projects to be awarded support in Round 8 of the Programme. In total, 21 projects have been awarded £4.4 million of funding during Round 8 of Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept Programme.

The Programme, created in 1999, aims to address the lack of available funding, from both the public and private sector, to support the development of research concepts into commercial products or services. To date the Programme has invested a total of £38.76 million in 206 projects.

Eleanor Taylor, head of the Proof of Concept Programme, comments, "As Scotland's enterprise, innovation and investment agency, Scottish Enterprise has a major role to maximise Scotland's innovation.  

"Through this Programme, Scotland's world-renowned research is being transformed into companies with the potential to grow and become world leaders in their fields. Equally of importance is the potential for this research to result in a commercial licence to an existing company.

"We have seen this happen already. Companies like Lumicure, Brinker and Biopta are innovative growing companies. All of them started with a Proof of Concept Programme award and have created commercial opportunities as a result."

"What we want to achieve is more of this success. Since the Programme started, 206 groundbreaking projects have been supported, resulting in 40 spin out companies and 38 licencing deals, creating over 500 jobs, and leveraging £210 million of public and private investment which would not otherwise have happened in Scotland."

Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, says, "The Proof of Concept Awards and programmes such as the General Research and Development Grant, which will make it easier for innovative firms across Scotland to secure grant support and grow their businesses, are so important in creating a more successful country.

"The future of Scotland's economy, and crucially our future quality of life, health and environment, depends on science, engineering and technology. I wish the 2008 Proof of Concept Award winners every success in developing their exciting projects."

Notes to editors

Full project abstracts can be viewed at the proof of concept page on the Scottish Enterprise website

Proof of Concept Programme additional Round Eight Awards:

Greater Glasgow Health Board

Life Sciences sector
Title: Developing a novel diagnostic imaging product for assessing metabolism and its application in stroke

Press Office:
Emma Gregory
Tel: 0141 201 4429
Email: press.office@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

University of Edinburgh
Electronic Markets sector
Title: Advanced development tools for spoken dialogue systems using Information State Updates and business-user resources

Press Office:
Ronnie Kerr
Tel: 0131 650 9547
Email: ronald.kerr@ed.ac.uk

University of Edinburgh
Enabling technologies & Engineering sector
Title: Clean water from clean energy

Press Office:
Ronnie Kerr
Tel: 0131 650 9547
Email: ronald.kerr@ed.ac.uk

University of Strathclyde
Life Sciences sector
Title: Sunburn warning indicators

Press Office:
Kat Ferguson
Tel: 0141 548 4123
Email: kat.ferguson@strath.ac.uk

University of Strathclyde
Life Sciences sector
Title: Transdermal Patient Monitoring

Press Office:
Kat Ferguson
Tel: 0141 548 4123
Email: kat.ferguson@strath.ac.uk

About the Proof of Concept Programme

The Proof of Concept Programme supports the pre-commercialisation of leading-edge technologies emerging from Scotland's universities, research institutes and NHS Boards. It helps researchers to export their ideas and inventions from the lab to the global marketplace.

Projects can be typically defined as occurring after advances made during curiosity-driven or strategic research. This is usually after a background patent has been filed, but before the following a full scale demonstration, pre-production development or prototyping or commercial funds for development have been made available.

It is not simply another source of research funding. Successful applicants must demonstrate that their ideas have originality and true commercial potential. Ideas should have the potential to form the basis of either a new high growth business or a license to an existing company.

The Proof of Concept Programme is fully committed to exploiting research advances and encouraging Scottish innovation. This commitment is demonstrated by the projects supported by the programme, which are high risk and may take several years to become commercially attractive to private investors.

The Programme has £79 million to award and is developed and operated by Scottish Enterprise in partnership with key stakeholders including: Scottish Government, Universities Scotland and Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. It is partly funded by the European Union.

Further information on Scottish Enterprise is available at the Scottish Enterprise website

For further information on individual projects please contact the named press officer in the notes to editors section above.

Contact Information