Scottish Enterprise welcomes BEIS Science and Innovation Audits
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published its second wave of Science and Innovation Audits on 21 September 2017.
BEIS invited consortia to form around geographic and technological themes and apply to be involved in the Science and Innovation Audit (SIA) process. These consortia are made up of businesses, universities, research and innovation organisations, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and their equivalents in the devolved administrations.
Scottish Enterprise participated in two SIA consortia - Enabling Technologies in Scotland’s Central Belt and OffShore Renewable Energy.
Linda Hanna, Managing Director at Scottish Enterprise, comments on the piublication of the SIA reports: “I’m delighted two Science and Innovation Audits have been published clearly recognising Scotland’s strengths and further opportunities in enabling technologies and offshore renewable energy.
“The enabling technologies audit highlights Scotland’s capabilities on data collection technologies like sensors and control systems and these complement extremely well those outlined in last year’s Science and Innovation Audit on software and data analysis in Edinburgh and South East of Scotland. Together, these place Scotland at the leading edge of data driven innovation. Our global position is further cemented by world-class academic excellence, centres such as the Fraunhofer Institute and QuantIC demonstrating strong collaboration between industry, public sector and academia, evidenced by a growing number of inward investors choosing Scotland as a location for their technology businesses.
“Building vibrant enabling technology capability has wider business benefits too, as these technologies are used by other businesses to drive innovation, harness new ideas for products, services and new markets and increase business efficiencies. This is especially relevant for Scottish manufacturers as they seek to modernise and embrace Industry 4.0 opportunities, a core part of the manufacturing action plan for Scotland. Beyond data science, the audit also recognises industrial biotech as a key enabling technology critical to the future of our life and chemical sciences sectors.”
“The offshore renewable energy audit outlines strengths Scotland has in marine renewables and offshore wind aligned to world class academic expertise in this area. Also acknowledged are tidal stream energy, where Scotland has world leading companies and projects, and the oil and gas sector, particularly Scotland’s excellence in subsea engineering.
“We look forward to working with partners to progress the opportunities identified and encouraging as many companies as possible to take advantage of the world class capabilities in both areas on offer across Scotland.”