SE clocks up a century of R&D projects in first six months

SE has revealed that it has assisted more than a century of companies in the first six months of the financial year with more than £35 million being committed to R&D. The number of projects is up ten percent from last year and means that SE’s investment of £9 million is helping to generate investment of over £25 million by Scottish companies in innovative new projects.  

Through its suite of innovation funds - R&D, WATERS and SMART: SCOTLAND – SE has supported 100 projects between April and September this year.  The grants aim to help companies develop new products or improve processes that will increase their competitiveness and access new markets at home and overseas. 

David Smith, innovation & enterprise services director at Scottish Enterprise said “At a time when companies are still experiencing pressures on margins and tighter budgets, it is very encouraging to see that they are continuing to recognise the value of research and development for their business.

“Despite the economic downturn, the number of small, young technology companies undertaking highly innovative R&D has increased compared with this time last year, which is encouraging as businesses strive to remain competitive.

“Our recently published research on High Growth Firms in Scotland underlines that companies who are highly innovative and extremely customer focused, with business models based around long-term relationships with customers account for more than 50% of new job growth in Scotland. Companies that continually create, evaluate and exploit new ideas are those most likely to compete and grow in the current economic climate.”

One of the largest grants to be awarded during the period was to tidal renewable energy company OpenHydro Technology Scotland Ltd for £1.57 million towards a total project cost of £4.18 million.  The funding was awarded through the WATERS fund to support the design, development, manufacture and testing of a power conversion and control system for marine renewable energy which will allow for the cost-effective connection of an array of tidal stream turbines to the electricity grid.

David continued “Together with other public sector partners, we recognised a need to provide financial support to encourage the growth of the marine renewables sector and took a real step in sharing the risk of undertaking R&D with companies whose activity would lead to a significant flow of money into the local supply chain through a focused call.”

The Creative Industries and Enabling Technologies sectors were major beneficiaries of grants, with 34 projects, being awarded to companies such as Glasgow-based Integrated Environmental Solutions and Agenor Technology Ltd in the Borders.

Companies from across a range of other sectors have benefited from the grants to develop ground breaking new technology, for example Fife-based Aircraft Medical Ltd to develop an anaesthesia monitor that will detect if a patient is conscious during surgery but is unable to let the surgical team know. The company received a SMART: SCOTLAND grant of £600,000 towards a total project cost of nearly £2 million.

This is the second SMART: SCOTLAND grant the company has received.  Matt McGrath, Chief Executive and Founder of Aircraft Medical Ltd said “Aircraft Medical Ltd has already greatly benefited from a SMART: SCOTLAND grant to develop the worlds first fully portable video laryngoscope - The McGrath® Series 5 –  which has already been used in over 250,000 cases around the world and has helped to save numerous lives.

“This latest round of funding will help us to develop an advanced anaesthesia technology to better monitor the level of consciousness and physiological state of a patient during surgery.” 

David Smith continued “In the first six months of this year we have not seen the same levels of demand from larger businesses for support for R&D than seen in previous years, however, there are signs that demand is increasing and we continue to pro-actively work with companies to support growth in this vital area for the economy.”

Scottish Enterprise’s Innovation funds are open to all companies located within Scotland, or planning to establish an R&D presence in Scotland. It aims to encourage companies to spend more on R&D to develop new products or processes by providing discretionary grants.  Both the R&D grant and WATERS fund are supported through European Regional Development Funds.  To find out more visit www.Scottish-enterprise.com