Edinburgh leads pilot project which will support up to 90 new technology startups.
Backed by the Scottish Funding Council and led by Edinburgh Research and Innovation at Edinburgh University (ERI), are launching a £2m ($3.4m) pilot scheme. The three-year project will support up to 90 startups and spin-outs that demonstrate a high potential for growth.
The scheme will focus mainly on companies launched by Master’s degree and PhD students. ERI – which represents three regional university hubs in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Strathclyde – will offer enterprise support services to campuses, such as workshops, mentoring and support in attracting funding. The project will be aimed at all Scottish universities.
The scheme follows the PraxisUnico report of May 2014 that Scottish spin-outs generate an economic impact of more than £300m ($500m) each year.
Grant Wheeler, head of company formation at ERI, said: “The economic need for Scottish universities to improve and accelerate the company formation process is clear. This initiative provides an opportunity to share valuable expertise and resources in the highly-specialised area of high-value knowledge-based company formation to produce more sustainable companies, from the Scottish university sector. The proposal is workable because it builds on what is already happening around Scotland. At present, the support mechanisms for this activity are highly variable at institutional and regional level. This new initiative will address this variability and ensure that all high value company formation projects at universities participating in the pilot project are optimally supported.”
