Scotland's latest innovative research projects announced

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."