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SCOTLAND CAN DO
BECOMING A WORLD-LEADING
ENTREPRENEURIAL AND INNOVATIVE NATION
MINISTERIAL FOREWORD
by John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for
Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth
1
John Swinney
MSP
Scotland has always been a CAN DO nation and we can be proud of
the impact that our people have made, and continue to make, on the
shape of the modern world. Today a new spirit of entrepreneurship
can be seen throughout Scotland and there is a real desire to effect
positive change across all parts of our economy. Often this is through
taking a distinctly Scottish approach in recognising the social as well as
economic bene?ts of entrepreneurship and innovation and by working
together creatively across the public, private, and third sectors. There
is a clear recognition that if we are to achieve sustainable economic
growth, and create opportunities for everyone to ?ourish, then we
must work together to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation
across Scotland.
This framework highlights the importance and ambition we attach to
entrepreneurship and innovation, the values that will inform our work
and our future priorities for action. Our commitment was shown in
the 2014-15 draft Budget which highlighted additional funding for
innovative measures to encourage a new age of entrepreneurship
across Scotland.
Just as importantly this framework asks what you can do – as an
individual, an entrepreneur or an innovative business – to help create
the types of businesses that will have the biggest positive impact on
Scotland and on the world.
Our vision is of Scotland as a world-leading entrepreneurial and
innovative nation – a CAN DO place for business. We invite all of our
enterprising citizens, businesses and organisations to join with us, in
a Team Scotland effort, to make that vision a reality.
SCOTLAND CAN DO
CAPABLE
Our entrepreneurs and innovators have the support, skills
and ?nance to start and develop growth enterprises.
AMBITIOUS
Scotland is a nation that values and celebrates
entrepreneurship and innovation.
NETWORKED
Our entrepreneurs and innovators can network
and work together to help ful?l their ambitions.
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
Stimulating demand and market opportunities to accelerate
the development of new products and services.
INTRODUCTION
2
The purpose of this framework is to set out our vision and
ambitions for becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and
innovative nation – a CAN DO place for business.
Our ambition is to achieve:
an increase in entrepreneurship and innovation activity from
individuals and businesses in Scotland resulting in more businesses
being formed and new products and services from existing
businesses;
more people from all walks of life with the ambition and skills
to create, lead and grow successful businesses;
an education system with entrepreneurship and innovation at
its core, seizing the opportunities presented by Curriculum for
Excellence, college reform and the world-leading strength of
our universities;
more of our knowledge and intellectual capital being
commercialised and greatly increased collaboration between
business and the academic sector; and
a greater focus on, and share of, global markets as our
business leaders grow in con?dence and expand their horizons
internationally.
This framework will contribute to the following National Outcomes
in Scotland’s Performance Framework:
1
We live in a Scotland that is the most attractive place for doing
business in Europe.
We realise our full economic potential with more and better
employment opportunities for our people.
We are better educated, more skilled and more successful,
renowned for our research and innovation.
1 See Scotland Performs at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/
scotPerforms
3
There are three speci?c National Indicators that will help us
to measure performance towards becoming a world-leading
entrepreneurial and innovative nation:
Increase the number of businesses.
2
Increase research and development spending.
3
.
Improve knowledge exchange from university research.
4
The document sets out:
What is entrepreneurship and innovation?
Why are entrepreneurship and innovation important?
2 See chart at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/
businesses#chart
3 See chart at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/
indicator/research
4 See chart at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/
indicator/knowledge
Our values and approach.
Scotland’s entrepreneurial and innovative spirit.
Understanding our challenges.
Priorities moving forward.
Channelling change and next steps.
This framework has evolved from on-going discussions with a wide
range of stakeholders across Scotland, including workshops held in
May and June 2013. The document has also been published in an
expanded interactive format, featuring additional case studies and
details of current activity.
4
CASE STUDY
SAFETRAY
An Edinburgh company producing a non-topple drinks tray has
secured deals to supply two of America’s largest food services
companies and a renowned hotel with its innovative product,
supported by Business Gateway.
Sodexo USA, Compass Group USA and the Four Seasons Hotel,
Las Vegas, were among the ?rst to purchase Safetray,
5
a non-
topple drinks tray invented by Alison Grieve. Alison came up
with the idea for the product after a tray of champagne worth
hundreds of pounds toppled over at an event she had organised.
Speaking about the major order, she said:
“Securing orders with such leading names in the hospitality
industry highlights how innovative the product is. It’s amazing
to think that a product made by a small Scottish company will
now be used in places such as Alaska, San Francisco and New
York.”
5http://safetrayproducts.com/
5
To succeed businesses need both these elements: entrepreneurs
who can identify real market opportunities and the innovative
skills to translate a good idea into a marketable product.
Government’s role is to provide the supportive environment in
which such businesses can succeed and accelerate growth in our
economy.
All business development and business start-up is important to
our economy. The focus of this entrepreneurship and innovation
framework, however, is on those businesses and business ideas
which have the greatest potential for growth, internationalisation
and economic bene?t.
innovation and technological change of a nation came from the
entrepreneurs, or wild spirits.
Joseph Schumpeter, 1939
“
“
WHAT ARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND INNOVATION?
It is important to de?ne what we mean by entrepreneurship and
innovation.
Entrepreneurship is a mindset seeking new opportunities which
can be turned into sustained business growth. Entrepreneurs are
those who seek to generate value through the creation or expansion
of economic activity by identifying and exploiting new products,
processes or markets.
Innovation is the process by which ideas can be turned into new
or signi?cantly improved products, services or business processes.
While products and services vary widely, the innovation process
requires creativity and connectivity between customers, suppliers,
?nanciers and other partners.
WHY ARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND INNOVATION IMPORTANT?
Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovative
employment generation and economic growth. Only by
creating an environment where entrepreneurship can
prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and
empower others can we ensure that many of the world’s
problems will not go unaddressed.
Klaus Schwab, Chair World Economic Forum 2009
“
“
6
Entrepreneurship and innovation are important because of the
contribution they can make to securing the Government’s purpose
of creating sustainable economic growth. This is through:
improving Scotland’s competitiveness through businesses which
have the greatest potential for growth, internationalisation and
economic bene?t, including through the creation of jobs; and
?nding solutions to society’s most dif?cult problems and so
creating a more equitable and sustainable future.
As the Government Economic Strategy (2011) states: “Scotland
is a country rich in economic potential. Our people are creative,
ambitious and resilient and we are home to world-class
entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers. It is vital we harvest
the opportunity that this provides.”
6
Entrepreneurship and innovation are also key elements of the
European Union’s Europe 2020 aim of smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth. The resources available through the European
programmes from 2014-20, including the Horizon 2020
programme, can potentially accelerate Scotland’s ambition to be
a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation. So too
can our continued membership of the EU’s Smart Specialisation
6http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/EconomicStrategy
Platform,
7
which promotes a focus on those areas within a region
or country that provide unique competitive advantage.
Innovation is seen as the engine of long term economic
development and has underpinned much of the UK’s productivity
growth. As Nesta highlighted in its recent publication Plan I –
The Case for Innovation-Led Growth, “63 per cent of productivity
growth in the last decade came either directly or indirectly from
innovation”.
8
Investment in innovation is a prominent feature
in the strategies of many successful small economies, including
Finland
9
and Denmark.
10
It is also crucial to consider that demand from consumers, whether
individuals, businesses or the public sector, is the most important
factor in the success or failure of businesses. Innovation and
entrepreneurship can help stimulate that demand and generate
market opportunities for new products and services, leading to
economic growth.
7http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home
8http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/PlanIwebv3.pdf
9http://www.tem.?/en/innovations/innovation_policy
10http://?vu.dk/en/newsroom/issues/innovation-strategy
7
CASE STUDY
REAL-LIFE ENTREPRENEURS
The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) Real-Life
Entrepreneurs campaign
11
is designed to celebrate and
support the UK’s small businesses community.
The small business lobby organisation, which has 200,000
members – 19,000 of them in Scotland – believe that
turning a good idea into a business is one of the most
positive acts an individual can perform for themselves and
the community in which they live.
11http://www.fsb.org.uk/campaigns/assets/entrepreneurship
man?est%20web.pdf
CASE STUDY
CREATIVE CLYDE
Creative Clyde
12
is a ?ourishing, vibrant centre for media,
technology and creatively minded businesses. In August
2013, 11 creative and digital businesses in Glasgow
won £620,000 between them to develop innovative
new products and services. The funding was awarded
at the conclusion of The Digital and Creative Clyde
Launchpad competition, run by the Technology Strategy
Board in partnership with Creative Clyde. Winning bids
include a digital tag for wireless monitoring and security
applications; a 3D virtual reality technology that creates
branding and training experiences; and computer games
rendering technology that will help make feature ?lms
easier and cheaper to produce.
12http://www.creativeclyde.com/
8
Today in Scotland it is right that all of our people should have
the opportunity to bene?t from sustainable economic growth.
In driving forward entrepreneurship and innovation, we believe
that:
The ambition, drive and leadership of individuals is crucial and
must be nurtured and developed within school and beyond. An
entrepreneurial mindset can be learned and a culture that supports
it created.
Entrepreneurial and innovative companies are found across all
business sectors. While many innovations are technology-based,
other forms of innovation can equally provide a competitive
advantage – it is the potential to create value and accelerate
growth that is important.
A range of business models are important, including employee
ownership, co-operatives and social enterprises.
There should be greater inclusion and involvement in
entrepreneurship and innovation across society.
Internal entrepreneurship and innovation – intrapreneurship –
is crucial to companies wishing to keep their competitive edge in
a global market.
Design, design-thinking and creativity are part of an innovative
approach.
Increasing collaboration within and beyond Scotland, and involving
the public, private and third sectors working together, is key to
success.
The public sector has an important role in creating a supportive
business environment for entrepreneurship and innovation; in
being a role model for innovation; through novel approaches to
procurement; and in seeking to stimulate both innovation and
market demand.
Constitutional change in Scotland could provide a range of policy
and ?nancial levers to further promote entrepreneurship and
innovation in Scotland.
OUR VALUES
AND APPROACH
9
CASE STUDY
INNOVATION THROUGH EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP
Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish
Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands
Enterprise that supports company growth through collaborative
and employee ownership business models.
An employee-owned business is one in which the employees
hold the majority of the shares either directly or through an
employee bene?t trust. Employee ownership gives employees
a meaningful stake in their organisation together with a genuine
say in how it is run.
Since its employee buyout in 2002, Dyce based manufacturing
and engineering business Woollard & Henry has seen a
remarkable 30 per cent increase on pro?tability every year,
innovating with new products and markets. Operating in a
declining industry, the employees had to ?nd new markets for
their products and new uses for their skills.
The company developed an international customer base within
the paper industry and now exports more than 60 per cent of
its output, and supplies 23 out of the 28 global producers of
currency. It also provides high quality bespoke solutions to the
oil and gas sector. As a result, employee numbers have risen
from 22 to 57.
Employees of
Woollard & Henry
10
We are a nation rightly proud of our rich heritage of entrepreneurs,
innovators and creative people. Indeed, some have even argued that
“Scots invented the modern world”.
13
From inventing the television, the telephone and radar to
discovering penicillin and developing beta-blockers, our past
achievements as a nation are signi?cant and varied. Today,
cutting-edge work such as the technology of ‘tractor-beams’
presently being led by the University of St Andrews, the
development of the next generation of prosthetic limbs by Touch
Bionics and ADL’s world–leading hybrid buses, shows that the CAN
DO spirit is alive and well in Scotland.
13 Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World –
Arthur Herman (2001)
SCOTLAND’S ENTREPRENEURIAL
AND INNOVATIVE SPIRIT
CASE STUDY
TOUCH BIONICS
Touch Bionics was the ?rst spin-out from the NHS to receive
signi?cant private and public sector investment, including
from Archangel Informal Investments and the Scottish Co-
investment Fund. Building on this support, the company
launched the i-limb™ hand in 2007. This was the ?rst
powered prosthetic hand to incorporate articulating ?ngers.
The following year it acquired US company, livingskin™,
which provides the lifelike passive functional prostheses and
prosthetic coverings for the i-limb™ technology.
Touch Bionics continues to innovate and lead the world in the
development of upper limb prosthetic technologies. This year
the company introduced the latest generation of advanced
prosthetic technology, i-limb™ ultra revolution, a myoelectric
prosthesis with powered rotating thumb and a mobile app
allowing the user to program and control features whilst on
the move.
11
Alongside our nation’s inventiveness we celebrate the great men
and women whose entrepreneurial spirits have created jobs and
growth, both at home and abroad. From Sir Thomas Lipton and
Andrew Carnegie in the nineteenth century to Lord Haughey,
Sir Tom Hunter and Ann Gloag OBE, who are working with us on
the Scottish EDGE fund judging panel, Scotland’s entrepreneurs
are renowned not just for their business success but also their
philanthropic endeavours.
We maintain a strong network of higher education institutions,
?ve of which rank in the global top 200 universities,
14
and there
is a real focus on business across our further and higher education
sectors – ensuring that while we rightly celebrate our past and
current successes we also pave the way for future ones.
14http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/
world-ranking
CASE STUDY
HEBRIDEAN SEA SALT
Natalie Crayton launched Hebridean Sea Salt, based in
South Lochs, in 2010 after spotting a gap in the market for
Scottish sea salt. Thanks to funding advice secured through
Business Gateway, Natalie, who studied marine biology, was
able to build her own unique production unit manufacturing
600 packs of salt a week.
Now, with increasing demand for her crunchy sea salt made
using the unpolluted water off the Isle of Lewis, she hopes
to secure further investment to allow her to eventually
produce up to 1,000 packets a day.
“
“
Without the advice and funding secured through Business Gateway
and Highlands and Islands Enterprise I wouldn’t have been able to
get so far. My plan now is to source further investment that will
allow me to expand into additional units and massively increase
production.
Natalie Crayton
12
Shown clockwise from top left,
members of the Entrepreneurial
Exchange Hall of Fame:
Charan Gill MBE, Sir Tom Hunter,
Duncan Bannatyne, Lord Willie
Haughey OBE, Sir Arnold Clark and
Ann Gloag OBE, Reproduced
with kind permission of The
Entrepreneurial Exchange -
© broad daylight
13
There are a number of positive signs emerging which indicate
that Scotland is already moving forward in achieving greater
entrepreneurship and innovation:
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2013) noted that in 2012
the rate of Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)
15
in
Scotland was 6.9 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent in 2011.
Over the last three years, Scotland’s TEA rate has moved from
being in the fourth quartile amongst 20 innovation driven
nations to the second quartile.
16
Scotland is in the top quartile of OECD countries for research and
development spend by the higher education sector (2011).
17
Scotland has been recognised as the best place in the UK to start
a life science business for the second year in a row.
18
We are securing more money and participating in more projects in
the EU’s ?agship Research and Innovation Programme, Framework
Programme 7, than at any time in our history.
15 The percentage of the adult working age population that are actively trying to
start a business, or that own and manage businesses that are less than three
and a half years old.
16http://www.strath.ac.uk/huntercentre/research/gem/
17http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/RD/GERDreport
18http://mobiuslifesciences.com/news/2012/12/?ndings-of-the-2012-uk-life-
science-start-up-report-realignment-/
A comprehensive and aligned ecosystem of support for
entrepreneurship and innovation has developed with considerable
renewed enthusiasm across the public, private and third sectors.
All signs that point to a new entrepreneurial and innovative spirit
alive in Scotland.
14
CASE STUDY
MORPHSUITS
Since it was founded in 2009 by Ali Smeaton, his brother Fraser
and friend Gregor Lawson, Morphsuits
19
has grown to a
£12 million turnover business. The company now employs
23 people in their of?ces in Edinburgh and London and have
recently acquired a business in California, USA.
Morphsuits are full body suits made from polyester and spandex
to make them super stretchy. The three founders initially
targeted 10,000 Facebook fans in the hope that it might pay
for a skiing holiday. However, they achieved that in a matter of
weeks and now have over 1.3 million social media followers.
Their advice to budding entrepreneurs is as follows:
“Do test your idea quickly and cheaply:
Morphsuits was our third idea. Despite our research, planning
and passion for the previous ideas we just couldn’t get them off
the ground. However, because we had launched them for little
money it meant that all we lost was our time and in return we
got a lot of learning that proved very useful with our following
ideas.
19http://www.morphsuits.co.uk/
15
CASE STUDY
MORPHSUITS
Do continue to keep your job until your concept is proven:
We kept our jobs for 18 months after launching Morphsuits
and while it was very hard work it meant that we could
reinvest all our pro?ts in growth because we could live off our
salaries. Just make sure your new venture isn’t competing
with your day job!
Do outsource:
This does two brilliant things for a start-up: 1. It means you
can keep your costs variable so you can scale up and down
with demand; 2. You can bring in experts in all areas of the
business. At Morphsuits we outsource absolutely everything
other than actually running the business.
Don’t keep it secret:
Too many people think that their idea is so special that if they
tell anyone it will be copied. Don’t believe it. The chances of
your idea being stolen are tiny and you will miss out on loads
of valuable feedback and introductions. At Morphsuits we
talk to as many people as possible and through that we have
found our manufacturers, our logistics ?rm and many more
innovations. Start a little black book.
Don’t wait until everything is 100% perfect before getting going:
If you wait until everything is perfect you will never launch
because nothing is ever perfect. When you launch, your
customers will forgive a few imperfections and you will have
started learning and earning money.
Don’t start something you don’t know how to monetise:
We all hear about Twitter and Facebook who drive huge
valuations before generating any revenue. Don’t be misled;
this only works for a few Silicon Valley venture capital backed
businesses. Having a business that generates revenues from
day one keeps you motivated and provides capital to ?nance
growth.”
Too many people think that their idea is so special that if they tell
anyone it will be copied. Don’t believe it. The chances of your idea
being stolen are tiny and you will miss out on loads of valuable
feedback and introductions.
“
“
16
Despite our strong track record of entrepreneurship and
innovation, and many great entrepreneurial individuals and
innovative companies, Scotland faces a number of challenges.
Innovation in Scotland has been characterised as a conundrum –
a high performing academic sector but lagging business innovation
performance in relation to research and development.
During the past two years we have been developing our
understanding of this. A review of Scotland’s Innovation System
undertaken by the Technopolis Group helped to crystallise the key
strategic challenges requiring attention and to highlight where
changes are required to improve economic growth.
20
This includes
developing a multi-annual action plan for prioritising investments
and ensuring university spin-off companies make more impact
on the Scottish economy. There is also a need to increase the
current low numbers of enterprises participating in research and
development and innovation activity.
The Scottish team participating in the Regional
Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP),
21
led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), has been studying the interaction between
innovative and entrepreneurial capacities in Scotland
and globally. Well-functioning systems in the public and private
sectors enable innovation-based businesses to grow in number and
scale. These companies exploit knowledge to create employment,
trade internationally and contribute more to Scotland’s economy.
20 “A Smart, sustainable nation?” Review of research and innovation policy in
Scotland – Reid, 2012.
21http://reap.mit.edu/
When compared to world leading innovation-based nations,
Scotland fares well, but the following have been identi?ed by the
Scottish REAP team as areas where collective action across the
private and public sectors would help businesses to grow and
innovate:
Effective connections between ambitious entrepreneurs, investors,
leaders of Scotland’s largest businesses, and policy makers.
Skills for growth including sales, leadership and human resources.
Increasing the role of universities in providing entrepreneurship
education, sharing best practice, and advocacy.
Promoting entrepreneurial role models from all parts of society.
Securing appropriate ?nance to support business growth across all
key sectors.
The REAP Scotland team will publish their detailed
recommendations early in 2014.
UNDERSTANDING
OUR CHALLENGES
PRIORITIES MOVING
FORWARD
17
In order to grow our economy and address key social issues by
becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation
we need to take action to develop our strengths and address the
challenges we face.
We need a collective approach that brings companies, universities,
public agencies and customers together to exploit more of the
opportunities that drive growth and increase exports.
We consider there are four main themes to transform Scotland’s
performance as an entrepreneurial and innovative nation. These
themes have been generated by assessing existing evidence
and analysis and through discussions with stakeholders across
the public, private and third sectors. They will guide how Team
Scotland moves forward and will be the focus of our key priorities
over the next three years.
SCOTLAND CAN DO
CAPABLE
Our entrepreneurs and innovators have the support, skills
and ?nance to start and develop growth enterprises.
AMBITIOUS
Scotland is a nation that values and celebrates
entrepreneurship and innovation.
NETWORKED
Our entrepreneurs and innovators can network
and work together to help ful?l their ambitions.
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
Stimulating demand and market opportunities to accelerate
the development of new products and services.
SUPPORTING GROWTH
18
PRINCE’S
TRUST (YBS)
YBS
GROWTH
FUND
E-SPARK
SCOTTISH
EDGE
GLOBAL
SCOT
SCOTTISH
INVESTMENT
BANK
FIRSTPORT
BG
GROWTH
PIPELINE
ENTERPRISE
AGENCIES
BUSINESS
ANGELS
Specialist and
Very High Growth
Investment
BUSINESS
GATEWAY
BUSINESS
MENTORING
SCOTLAND
BUSINESS
GROWTH
FUND
BRIGHT
IDEA
SCOTLAND
High Growth
Investment
and Support
Transition
to Growth
First Steps
NB: this diagram is an indication of some of the key agencies and resources available
to support business growth and ambition in Scotland. It is not intended to be
exhaustive.
CAPABLE
OUR ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS HAVE THE SUPPORT,
SKILLS, AND FINANCE TO START AND DEVELOP GROWTH
ENTERPRISES.
In order to innovate and grow, businesses need to have the right
team in place with the necessary leadership and technical skills to
create new products and services. They need to have access to the
right kind of business support as well as the opportunities of the
digital economy and appropriate, affordable ?nance. A supportive
regulatory regime that reduces the burden of bureaucracy on our
entrepreneurs and innovators is also required. The Scottish Business
Resilience Centre
22
can help our businesses to safeguard their assets.
There is already a range of business support for entrepreneurs
and innovators with growth potential across Scotland and we
will continue to work to ensure this is aligned and focused on the
needs of business.
22http://www.sbcc.org.uk/
19
CASE STUDY
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPARK (E-SPARK)
A ?ve month business accelerator – Hatchery – where start-
ups and early stage businesses are nurtured, enabled and
challenged, E-Spark
23
is about the entrepreneur, their mindset
and how they go about their business, regardless of sector.
E-Spark look for a workable idea and the look in the eye that
shouts – I am going to do this!
E-Spark offers start-up support, business mentoring, workshops,
of?ce space, IT and facilities all free in a collaborative
environment for like-minded entrepreneurs to test their ideas,
network and, ideally, grow. Packed into a structured ?ve month
programme designed to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and
behaviours, E-Spark is currently located across three Hatcheries
in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire.
23http://www.entrepreneurial-spark.com/
20
We will continue to invest in those companies with the greatest
potential for growth, internationalisation and economic bene?t
through schemes such as SMART: Scotland; R&D Grant for Business;
Proof of Concept and Knowledge Transfer Grant; Smart Exporter;
and the Entrepreneurial Development Programme. See the Scottish
Business Portal
24
for full details of current schemes and support.
The next programme of European Structural and Investment
(ESI) Funds 2014-20 will also support entrepreneurship and
growth through an increased focus on business competitiveness
and innovation. The funds will focus on the key drivers of
growth through offering business advice, support and leadership
development which bridges current services and makes it
easier to start and grow a business in Scotland. Additional
innovation support will better link academia to business and
commercialisation by helping businesses to develop new globally
competitive products, services and processes. Overall, the support
from the ESI funds will help to identify the next set of high growth
companies, in particular focusing on those which could achieve
growth in the next ?ve years and helping those companies achieve
and sustain that growth.
24http://www.business.scotland.gov.uk/
Our entrepreneurs and innovators need access to the right skills
and training for themselves and their employees that will help
them to develop and grow their enterprises. The industry led
Skills Investment Plans, delivered through Skills Development
Scotland (SDS), provide a framework for businesses and employers
to articulate the right skills needed to support the development of
Scotland’s growth sectors. SDS’s web service for individuals, My
World of Work
25
is currently developing a suite of new content
on enterprise and entrepreneurship due for launch early 2014.
Using a range of tools, features and case studies, the content
will introduce enterprise skills and their relevance to career
development; and help individuals consider entrepreneurship as
a potential career path.
Our colleges and universities are crucial to ensure our businesses
have access to a supply of entrepreneurial and innovative
graduates equipped with the skills, training and appetite to
join growing businesses. The Scottish Funding Council engages
with colleges and universities to highlight the need for applied
learning and understanding of business needs. The WildHearts
Foundation
26
has been promoting ‘entrepreneurial apprentices’ who
will be placed with high growth potential businesses.
25http://www.myworldofwork.co.uk
26http://www.wildheartsinaction.org/
21
The digital economy is key to much entrepreneurial activity
and innovation and to support our businesses to work in the
digital economy we are investing in infrastructure that will allow
super-fast broadband rollout across Scotland. The Step Change
Programme
27
is putting in place infrastructure that will have the
capacity to deliver next generation broadband to at least 85 per
cent of premises by 2015-16 and 95 per cent by 2017-18. There
will also be a new Digital Scotland Economy Partnership with our
public and private sector partners, to ensure that all of Scotland’s
businesses can bene?t from the digital age.
A particular challenge for any entrepreneurial and innovative
business is securing ?nance for growth, particularly in the current
economic context. We will therefore continue to work with the
banks to improve the supply of ?nance to new and growing
ventures and with Scotland’s vibrant Business Angel community.
Scottish Enterprise will provide advisory services for companies
seeking to access ?nance, including through the ?nance hub of
the Scottish Business Portal
28
and a team of investment readiness
specialists. The Scottish Investment Bank
29
will continue to
27http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/digital/action/Makingprogress
28http://www.business.scotland.gov.uk/Funding
29http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/scottish-investment-
bank.aspx
work with our most entrepreneurial and innovative companies
to ensure they have debt and equity ?nancial solutions. We are
also investigating the potential of non-bank ?nance such as peer-
to-peer lending and crowd funding, including funding a Saltire
Fellowship to investigate the US experience.
A key opportunity for Scotland is to help unleash the growth
potential in our established middle–sized companies, many of
which are family businesses with proud heritages. The Scottish
Government will therefore work with the Federation of Small
Businesses, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Business Gateway
and our enterprise agencies to develop the entrepreneurial and
innovative capability of Scotland’s established businesses.
22
Priorities moving forward:
Providing aligned and focussed business support to improve
entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities.
Having a range of public sector investment support available.
Focussing on the skills businesses need to innovate and grow.
Supporting entrepreneurs and innovative businesses to work in
the digital economy.
Working to secure greater access to ?nance.
Working with our established middle-sized companies to
support growth potential.
23
CASE STUDY
SCOTTISH EDGE – ENCOURAGING DYNAMIC GROWTH
ENTREPRENEURS
The Scottish EDGE Fund
30
is a collaboration between Scottish
Government, Entrepreneurial Spark, Royal Bank of Scotland,
Business Gateway and our enterprise agencies. It targets
ambitious entrepreneurs wishing to establish or grow
their business and provides real opportunities for them to
contribute to Scotland’s economic success. In the ?rst two
rounds, the competition has awarded over £1.2 million of
support to 34 young Scottish businesses with real growth
potential.
Clear Returns
31
predictive technology has the power to save
retailers signi?cant money, by highlighting the products,
processes, suppliers and customers causing costly returns – and
triggering intelligent responses. They help e-commerce and
multichannel retailers optimise for pro?t, not simply sales. The
company is already working with major UK and international
retailers, including Scottish headquartered retailer M & Co. Clear
Returns was recently named Best New Product at the 2013
30http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/other-sources-
of-funding/scottish-edge.aspx
31http://www.clearreturns.com/about-us/
Digital Technology Awards, won IBM SmartCamp in Dublin and
the Big Data Venture Challenge in Rome.
Clear Returns was assisted with £30,000 of Scottish EDGE
funding, which has helped it focus on sales development and
a SMART: Scotland award that has helped development of the
highly innovative technology. The company is now raising up to
£1 million to fund global expansion.
The team at Clear Returns –
a Scottish EDGE winning company
24
We need to ensure that entrepreneurship and innovation is
embedded across Scottish society and that Scotland is truly
seen as a CAN DO place. Within a global marketplace where
competitive advantage is realised through innovative products,
processes and business models, fostering an entrepreneurial and
ambitious culture is essential. Scotland needs more people with an
entrepreneurial mindset and ambition, with a greater appetite for
risk and reward, people who can create new products and services
and grow companies of international scale.
Our education system is key to realising our ambition. Through
Curriculum for Excellence, teachers and others who support
young people’s learning are able to inspire and unleash the
potential of our next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
AMBITIOUS
SCOTLAND IS A NATION THAT VALUES AND CELEBRATES
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION.
Curriculum for Excellence’s framework for learning and teaching
has enterprise as one of ?ve cross-cutting themes which underpin
learning across the whole curriculum. Our former enterprise in
education strategy, Determined to Succeed, was embedded within
Curriculum for Excellence from April 2011. The Scottish Councils’
Enterprise in Education Network (SCEEN) meets regularly to share
intelligence and best practice across the country in enterprise and
entrepreneurial activity in schools and other settings.
The Scottish Government will be facilitating collaborative work
between Education Scotland, the Association of Directors of
Education in Scotland, Micro-Tyco, the Social Enterprise Academy,
Young Enterprise Scotland, The Prince’s Trust and other partners to
create further accessible resources for schools and pupils.
“
“
I didn’t really like school. I got suspended twice but I can’t really
remember why. We had to borrow a pound from Micro-Tyco, and
when I was sitting thinking about it, the only thing I’d do with a
pound before would be to buy a scratchy card or put a football
coupon on. Now I know how to go about setting up a business and
making investments.
25
CASE STUDY
MICRO-TYCO
Micro-Tyco
32
is a ground-breaking enterprise challenge, run
by the WildHearts Foundation, that has brought together over
10,000 participants, from school children to business executives.
Micro-Tyco’s vision is to ignite the spirit of enterprise across our
culture.
Taking inspiration from the spirit of WildHearts micro?nance
clients in the developing world, Micro-Tyco challenges teams to
grow £1 into as much money as possible in just four weeks. Its
unique combination of inspiration, business mentorship, positive
peer pressure and ethics produces incredible results. To date,
over £500,000 has been returned from just 1,900 £1 loans.
Jamie Maguire was a 16 year-old school excludee when he
participated in Micro-Tyco. Even so, his team transformed their
£1 micro-loan into £1,500. His success in Micro-Tyco attracted
the attention of Arnold Clark, who have since taken Jamie on as
a trainee mechanic.
32http://www.wildheartsinaction.org/microtyco
26
Entrepreneurship and innovation also need to be further
promoted across Scotland’s colleges and universities as exciting
career options available for talented individuals. Scotland’s new
regional college structure presents an exciting opportunity to do
this and will be an integral part of increasing entrepreneurship
and innovation across Scotland. The Independent Commission
for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce,
33
chaired by Sir
Ian Wood, will also be examining the potential for increasing
entrepreneurship as it concludes its work.
The Scottish Government and RBS are facilitating Young Enterprise
Scotland’s Bridge2Business
34
initiative to boost aspiration and
capability towards starting businesses amongst our college students.
The aim of the project is to inspire, connect and support college
students into business. It is being piloted at City of Glasgow College.
33http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/09/7161
34http://www.yes.org.uk/news/2013/sep/bridge2business-hits-the-ground-run-
ning.htm
Laura-Jayne Nevin – a winner of the
Young Innovators Challenge
CASE STUDY
YOUNG INNOVATORS CHALLENGE
The Scottish Government has also supported the Young
Innovators Challenge
35
– a competition aimed at encouraging
young people in college, training or university to come up with
innovative ideas. Funded by the Scottish Government, the
competition is run by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.
In the 2013 competition, entrants were asked to create innovative
solutions to challenges set by industry leaders. Finalists then
pitched their ideas to a business panel of experts for the chance
to win development funding up to £50,000 and business support.
Laura-Jayne Nevin, a graduate from Edinburgh College of Art,
was a 2013 winner. Laura-Jayne intends to open Wool & Co,
a contemporary yarn boutique and knitting studio that aims to
encourage the younger generation into knitting.
35http://www.sie.ac.uk/about-sie/sie-activities/young-innovators-challenge
27
There is widespread agreement around the importance of role
models in developing an entrepreneurial and innovative culture.
We are currently supporting the 1001 Enterprising Scots
36
project
to develop a repository of video resources featuring a wide
range of Scots talking about their businesses. This will be freely
available and searchable allowing experiences of entrepreneurship
and innovation to be shared. Further promotion of role models
will be vital in raising levels of ambition.
A key principle we value is to promote inclusiveness in
entrepreneurship and innovation, working with key business, social
and third sector organisations to ensure all members of society in
Scotland are able to realise their potential to be entrepreneurs and
innovators. This includes working with the Enterprise Research
Centre at Strathclyde University
37
in order to better understand
how black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs can be better
supported and celebrated and also to promote entrepreneurship
by women.
36http://www.scotpreneur.org.uk/
37http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2012/headline_674776_en.html
CASE STUDY
WOMEN’S ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND
Women’s Enterprise Scotland
38
will collaborate with public,
private and third sector partners to lead on a framework
of actions speci?c to tackling the gender gap evident
in enterprise and growth. This will include a project
that ensures that successful women entrepreneurs are
appropriately celebrated and are aided in sharing their
skills and insights with the next generation of Scottish
businesswomen.
38http://www.wescotland.co.uk/
28
CASE STUDY
THE PRINCE’S INITIATIVE
FOR MATURE ENTERPRISE
(PRIME)
The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise
39
is dedicated
to providing everyone over 50, who is unemployed or
under threat of redundancy, with the support to achieve
?nancial, social and personal ful?lment through sustainable
self-employment. The Scottish operation commenced in
February 2013 with a three-year target to help create
300 new businesses with the over 50s, including through
awareness sessions and training.
Jimmy, 63, attended PRIME’s three-day Glasgow business
training course in April 2013 and has gone on to establish
a business designing jewellery that has a sporting and
inspirational twist. Jimmy believes that the training
provided by PRIME has helped him to keep focus and meant
he has been able to move his ideas forward.
39http://www.prime.org.uk
VisitScotland has been promoting entrepreneurial ambition
through its Thistle Awards
40
which feature a category of Tourism
Entrepreneur. Over 100 entries were received demonstrating the
entrepreneurial energy in the sector.
WildHearts and their partners are working towards the
establishment of a signi?cant annual prize for ready-to-market
business ideas that will offer a positive outcome for ‘global good’.
Our town centres can be at the heart of enterprise and community
as identi?ed in the National Review of Town Centres External
Advisory Report.
41
The Scottish Government, Scotpreneur, the Scottish Business
Resilience Centre and other partners will deliver a competition that
enables the key actors within our town centres to enhance and
develop their local entrepreneurial ecosystems. By supporting the
development of these ‘living labs’ we will ensure that our town
centres are equipped to support the economic and social aspirations
of their communities.
40http://www.scottishthistleawards.co.uk/
41http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-
centres/review
29
Priorities moving forward:
Through Curriculum for Excellence, supporting teachers and
schools to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and
innovators.
Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation across our colleges
and universities.
Promoting a series of inspirational entrepreneurial and
innovative role models.
Delivering a series of projects to realise the potential for a
wider range of people across Scottish society to engage in
entrepreneurship and innovation.
Supporting the ambition for our town centres to be at the heart
of enterprise and community in Scotland.
30
CASE STUDY
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT
STOW COLLEGE
Stow College in Glasgow (becoming part of the new Glasgow
Kelvin College) is currently the only Scottish member of the
Gazelle Colleges group: a group of 20 UK colleges committed to
improving teaching and learning through an entrepreneurial-
based approach, ensuring that students leave college with the
attitude, skills and capabilities needed for success.
In September 2012, Stow established Scotland’s ?rst
Peter Jones Enterprise Academy (PJEA). Backed by the
Dragon’s Den entrepreneur, PJEA at Stow offers learners the
opportunity to achieve a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Enterprise
and Entrepreneurship. Learners also have an opportunity to
develop the essential skills and attitudes for today’s business
world. The programme includes students setting up their own
business or social enterprise. Natalie Morrison and Serign
Sanneh are two of the successful students from the ?rst PJEA
intake at Stow.
Natalie has been successful in securing a
place on E-Spark’s Business Accelerator
Programme. Her company, You-olo (You
Only Live Once), is an online platform
designed to give 16-24 year olds the
con?dence, knowledge and support that
they need to start their own businesses.
Serign’s business has also been accepted on to
E-Spark’s Accelerator programme. PalmAfrica.
com is an online directory and marketplace
aimed at helping Africans and Caribbeans in
the UK to become more enterprising and to
help existing businesses to grow.
“Stow College and PJEA presented me with endless opportunities. In
October 2013 during Black History Month, PalmAfrica.com will be
of?cially launched with various workshops and an entrepreneurship
competition launched which will then become an annual event.”
Serign
I applied to PJEA at Stow College in the hope that I could change my
career path. And that is exactly what has happened, no looking back
now. I can now walk out into the business world with my own net-
work!
Natalie
“
“
31
Supporting businesses which have the greatest potential for
growth, internationalisation and economic bene?t requires a
linking together of the people, ideas, experience, technology,
?nance and production networks needed to successfully develop
new ideas and methods and then bringing them to scale and
market. We also need to improve creation and exploitation
of knowledge across the innovation system, including through
encouraging more collaborations between businesses and between
businesses and academia.
The network between business and academia is crucial. There is a
need to support and promote the bene?ts of knowledge exchange
collaborations between businesses, universities and colleges that
deliver a positive economic impact.
NETWORKED
OUR ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS CAN NETWORK AND
WORK TOGETHER TO HELP FULFIL THEIR AMBITIONS.
CASE STUDY
COLLABORATION AT
ALEXANDER DENNIS
Alexander Dennis Limited
42
(ADL) is a great example of
where a collaborative approach built around an emerging
global market opportunity can really add to Scotland’s
competitive position internationally. In 2013 the ?rst
large collaborative Scottish Enterprise Research and
Development grant was awarded to ADL, BAE Systems and
the Power Network Demonstrator Centre to produce a new
bus system capable of operating in 100 per cent electric
mode via highly innovative underground on route charging
infrastructure. Unlike current electric hybrid buses where
the battery is topped by the diesel engine, the new bus can
run for up to 30 minutes with the engine off.
42http://www.alexander-dennis.com/favicon.ico
32
CASE STUDY
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PARTNERSHIP
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)
43
help businesses,
including social enterprises, improve their competitiveness and
productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology
and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. Each KTP
programme brings together a company, academic institute and
one or more recently quali?ed students, known as KTP Associates,
in challenging projects that meet a core strategic need within the
company.
Currently funded by 15 Government organisations and led by
the Technology Strategy Board, with co-sponsors including the
Scottish Government and Research Councils, KTP partnerships
are designed to bene?t everyone involved. Outcomes include
increase in pro?tability for company partners; associates
gaining business-based experience and the Knowledge Base
partner enhancing the business relevance of their research and
teaching.
43http://www.ktponline.org.uk/of?ces
Such bene?ts were realised in Clyde Space’s KTP
44
with Strathclyde
University which helped establish the company at the forefront
of CubeSat micro-satellite design and position Scotland as a
leader in space technology. With the help of the partnership, the
company won a contract from the UK Space consortium for testing,
construction and assembly of UKube-1, the UK’s ?rst CubeSat
(nanosatellite) system.
44http://www.clyde-space.com/
The First Minister visiting
ClydeSpace to view UKube-1,
Scotland’s ?rst satellite
33
CASE STUDY
FRAUNHOFER
The Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics
45
was launched
in April 2013 and is based in Strathclyde University’s
Technology and Innovation Centre. A ?rst in the UK, the
Centre is the product of a collaborative effort between
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe’s largest organisation
for applied research, Strathclyde University, the Scottish
Government, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding
Council. It will be a hub for industry-driven laser research
and technology for sectors including healthcare, security,
energy and transport.
Fraunhofer UK Research Ltd is the umbrella organisation
for any future UK-based Fraunhofer research centres. It is
also based in Strathclyde University and will work across
universities and industry to ensure research is developed to
a stage where it can readily be adopted by industry.
45http://www.fraunhofer.co.uk/en/FraunhoferCentreForAppliedPhoton-
ics.html
The Scottish Funding Council
46
, working
with Scotland’s universities and
enterprise agencies, have launched
Innovation Scotland – a shared strategy
to increase the simplicity of, and improve
the effectiveness of, the support for
business growth through innovation
arising from collaboration with
universities.
The Innovation Scotland transformation agenda will be driven
by a high pro?le Innovation Scotland Forum to ensure that
opportunities to better support innovation and entrepreneurialism
are identi?ed and that effective action to stimulate business
demand for innovation is taken. Examples of the Innovation
Scotland strategy in action already include the enhanced work
of Interface and the ongoing creation of Scotland’s Innovation
Centres. These demand-led centres will stimulate economic growth
through the innovation arising from businesses and universities
working together.
46http://www.sfc.ac.uk/
34
CASE STUDY
INTERFACE CONNECTING
BUSINESS AND EDUCATION
Interface
47
is the matchmaker service which connects businesses
with Scotland’s 24 higher education and research institutes to
stimulate innovation and growth. Through intelligent brokerage
mechanisms and the face-to-face nature of Interface over 1,227
business and academic partnerships and around 750 collaborative
projects have been facilitated resulting in a wide range of societal
and economic bene?ts to support the Scottish economy. Over the
last year Interface has gone from strength to strength, broadening
its reach across all industry sectors from food and drink to tourism
and all regions both rural and urban.
Equal Adventure
48
is a company who recently worked with
Interface. Located near Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland,
Equal Adventure is a registered charity with an overall mission to
inspire and resource outdoor adventure, sport and active lifestyles
with disabled people.
47http://www.interface-online.org.uk/
48http://equaladventure.org/
The company had developed and created a prototype of snow board
bindings for double leg amputees and needed to complete stringent
laboratory-based assessments of the prototype. Interface identi?ed
the knowledge and facilities required within the University of
Strathclyde which enabled a student to undertake the design,
development and testing required.
The project resulted in a working prototype and enabled Equal
Adventure to demonstrate that the bindings were safe for use
by double leg amputees. In doing so they have been able to add
another product to their range and enter a new market for injured
veterans. This also safeguarded four jobs within the organisation
and a number of opportunities have been identi?ed for further
collaboration with universities.
35
Accessing European research and development funding is a key
way business and universities and colleges can work together.
To support this the Scottish Funding Council has launched a new
£400,000 funding scheme to help at least 80 Scottish businesses
break into the European research market. The Horizon 2020 SME
Engagement Scheme intends to support businesses to explore
Horizon 2020 European research funding opportunities with the
assistance of Scottish universities. The new voucher scheme
provides up to £5,000 of support for each project.
Mentoring is seen as an essential way for entrepreneurs and
innovative businesses to network with, gain insight from and
develop opportunities with more experienced business leaders.
The pro?le and understanding of mentoring needs to be raised to
ensure entrepreneurs and innovators are better able to access and
take advantage of the practice.
The Scottish Government will develop a comprehensive
understanding of the mentoring landscape. Following this we will
facilitate key partners to develop and promote a joined-up service
that better allows mentors to offer their skills and that enhances the
offer to potential mentees.
CASE STUDY
THE STRATIFIED MEDICINE
SCOTLAND INNOVATION
CENTRE
The Strati?ed Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre
49
is a
partnership involving Health Science Scotland
50
, Scottish
businesses and major global companies. It will have a base at
the new South Glasgow Hospital.
Strati?ed medicine exploits the latest advances in DNA
sequencing technology to determine the genetic make-up of
patients undergoing treatment for different diseases. The
goal is to ?nd which treatments work best in which patient
so clinicians can choose the most appropriate and effective
treatment for each patient. The SMS-IC will focus primarily
on developing new forms of effective treatment for chronic
diseases, including cancer, stroke, diabetes, rheumatoid
arthritis, and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The
aim is to lead a global transformation in healthcare delivery.
49http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2013/04/over-2000-jobs-at-
new-30million-innovation-centres
50http://www.healthsciencescotland.com
36
Priorities moving forward:
Ensure better collaboration and knowledge exchange between
businesses and between business and universities and colleges.
Implement Innovation Scotland and Innovation Centres to
support greater business and academic collaboration.
Support businesses to access European research and
development funds, particularly Horizon 2020.
Support and develop the opportunities for mentoring for our
entrepreneurs and innovative companies.
37
Entrepreneurship and innovation exists where there is customer
demand and market opportunities. We need an increased focus on
creating consumer demand for new products and services through
innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship. We need to ensure
Scottish companies are able to access market opportunities that
present themselves, particularly exporting and internationalisation,
including having the skills related to marketing and selling.
Customers can be instrumental in driving entrepreneurship and
innovation. These can be individual consumers or public or private
organisations. A key way to in?uence this is to use innovative
procurement to drive innovation and public service design
and delivery. This could include pre-commercial procurement
and setting challenges and competitions. European Regional
Development Funding has been allocated to support a pilot
programme to establish a Procurement Facilitator Programme.
The programme will focus on pre-commercial procurement,
looking to capture public sector needs, stimulate awareness and
understanding within the business community of the opportunities
available and aid skills and capacity transfer.
Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) could have a key role in advising
on ways to develop demand through innovation. Key to this will
be the cross-cutting Technology Advisory Group
51
, which brings
together industry and public agencies, and has the vision “to
unleash the inherent innovation and business potential that exists
within the Scottish Technology and Engineering Sector”.
51http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/your-sector/technology/strategy.aspx
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
STIMULATING DEMAND AND MARKET OPPORTUNITIES TO
ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES.
38
Government can also play a direct role in stimulating innovation,
and, using a challenge-based approach, can work together with
industry and other partners to come up with solutions to real life
public sector issues. The Scottish Government is now using this
model to take forward innovation in health in a way that supports
the development of innovative products for the Scottish market
and beyond.
NHSScotland has a Vision for 2020
53
that everyone will be able to
live longer healthier lives at home, or in a homely setting. A key
component of this is to move the focus of care and support away
from the hospital to the communities and homes where people
live. This vision is about transformational change, not incremental
improvement. To make this happen, innovative models of care and
different ways of working must be created and adopted.
The Scottish Collaborative Innovation Partnership Process (SCIPP)
54
is looking to address the NHSScotland 2020 challenge by promoting
radical thinking on extending and improving quality care outside
the hospital. The best ideas that emerge from the process will,
under sponsorship from the Scottish Government, be developed,
supported and scaled through appropriate support mechanisms
including NHS procurement, NHS planning, partnership working and
the Technology Strategy Board’s Small Business Research Initiative
programme.
53http://www.scot.nhs.uk/introduction.aspx
54 For details and application form, see the Scottish Government website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-Performance/
Innovation-Health
CASE STUDY
INNOVATION PROCUREMENT AND
DEMAND STIMULATION
The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands
and Islands Enterprise are currently engaged in a pilot project
with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd
52
(CMAL) to support an
innovative procurement approach to address unmet demand
for dockside charging solutions for their new hybrid ferries.
The approach looked at providing information to businesses
at the pre-commercial stage allowing the outline of the new
requirement to be described at an information day. This was
followed up using a competitive dialogue technique which
allowed discussions between interested businesses and CMAL
as part of the procurement process.
52http://www.cmassets.co.uk/en/home.html
39
HEALTH AND WEALTH IN SCOTLAND:
A STATEMENT OF INTENT FOR
INNOVATION IN HEALTH
Health And Wealth In Scotland: A Statement Of Intent For
Innovation In Health
55
highlights that Scotland is well placed
to be an international centre for innovation in health with
an integrated health service with major quality ambitions, a
strong life sciences industry, excellent informatics and ?rst
class universities and research capability.
The Statement sets out how partnership working with Government,
NHSScotland, industry and the research community can aid the
development, marketing and adoption of products and medicines
that are better matched to its needs, and which are evidence-
based. The Statement is an explicit driver to entrepreneurship and
innovation in Scottish companies in the life sciences and health
sectors to create and develop for market the next generation of
health technologies and solutions.
55http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-
Performance/Innovation-Health/Statement
To help support this aim the Scottish Government has launched
the Scottish Collaborative Innovation Partnership Process which
challenges a range of partners including Health Boards, industry,
academia and the third sector for innovative ideas that will
help transform future care outside hospitals. The best ideas
that emerge from the process will, under sponsorship from the
Scottish Government, be developed, supported and scaled through
appropriate support mechanisms including NHS procurement, NHS
planning, partnership working and the Small Business Research
Initiative programme.
40
A key way of generating new demand and opportunities is to
support the conversion of science and technology ideas into new
products and services which have the potential to signi?cantly
impact on our economy.
The Scottish Science Advisory Council report, Making the Most of
our Scientifc Excellence
56
(2013) concludes a two-year period of
work on this topic. Key recommendations in the report include,
amongst others:
that commercial skills should be embedded in all Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degree courses;
the establishment of an annual ‘entrepreneurship’ summer school;
that consideration be given to setting up a ‘payroll support’ scheme
to encourage post-graduate employment in Scottish SMEs;
encouraging the creation of one or more generic graduate training
scheme(s) matched to the needs of companies, including small and
start-up companies, that do not have in-house schemes; and
56http://www.scottishscience.org.uk/sites/default/?les/article-attachments/
Final%20SSAC%20Innovation%20report%20-%20FEB%2013_0.pdf
that a target 10 per cent of public procurement (health service, local
authority) be spent on innovative services and products from SMEs
and that the procurement process be redesigned to allow (and even
encourage) a higher level of risk in taking on new products and
services.
The Technology Strategy Board
57
(TSB) has contributed to a number
of recent innovation initiatives in Scotland focused on stimulating
demand and creating opportunities. The TSB will be a key partner
in developing this further.
57https://www.innovateuk.org/
41
CASE STUDY
OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY
CATAPULT
Funded through commercial funding and investment from
the Technology Strategy Board, Catapult is a network of
technology and innovation centres that aim to provide
businesses an opportunity to access facilities, equipment
and expertise so they can develop, test and exploit new
ideas and products in a number of key technology sectors.
Headquartered in Glasgow, the Offshore Renewable Energy
Catapult
58
will work with project developers, their supply
chain partners, testing facilities and others to develop,
commercialise and grow innovative technologies and
technological solutions in the ?eld of offshore renewable
energy.
58http://ore.catapult.org.uk
Exploratory work will also be undertaken as part of Scotland’s
membership of the Smart Specialisation Platform, to learn from
international good practice in areas such as demand driven
innovation policies, tools to enhance service–led innovation and
opportunities to engage more SMEs in innovation.
The impact of strong sales and marketing skills on the growth of
businesses is clear. Public, private and third sector partners will
therefore work in collaboration to develop and facilitate the skill-
sets of sales and marketing engagement and promote the value of
these skills.
Being able to export and access new international markets is a
key part of entrepreneurship and innovation. When companies
start to export, or reach into new markets, they will need to
innovate to address customer needs. For ?rms of all sizes there
is a strong positive association between innovation, exporting and
productivity and growth – innovation and exporting work jointly to
improve business performance.
Analysis shows that companies that received both innovation
support and internationalisation support report bigger impacts
than those that received just one of these.
59
Furthermore, SMEs
which have a track record of innovation are more likely to export,
more likely to export successfully, and more likely to generate
growth from exporting than non-innovating ?rms.
60
59http://www.evaluationsonline.org.uk/evaluations/Browse.do?ui=browse&actio
n=show&id=395&taxonomy=ENT
60http://enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/default/assets//File/ERC White
Paper%20No_5%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
42
Scottish Development International
61
is committed to supporting
and working with any Scottish business that wants to trade
internationally, including through the Smart Exporter programme
62
which supports companies exporting for the ?rst time.
The GlobalScot
63
network also offers signi?cant opportunity to
help businesses access experienced individuals who can help them
to reach new customers and understand the dynamics in new
markets and we will explore this further. The Power of Youth
64
initiative has also been developing its network and capabilities
through support from the Scottish Government and the Royal Bank
of Scotland in order to create opportunities for growing Scottish
companies of international scope.
61http://www.sdi.co.uk/
62http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/services/do-business-outside-scotland
63https://www.sdi.co.uk/globalscot.aspx
64http://power-of-youth.org/
Priorities moving forward:
A greater focus on how customers, public and private,
can in?uence entrepreneurship and innovation, including
through innovative procurement.
Working with the Scottish Science Advisory Council to
ensure Scotland’s scienti?c excellence can fully drive
innovation opportunities.
Working with the Technology Strategy Board to identify
opportunities where Scottish organisations can collaborate
or compete for funding.
Assessing the potential for additional support for sales and
marketing skills.
A continued focus on exports and support for
entrepreneurial and innovative business to internationalise.
CHANNELLING CHANGE
AND NEXT STEPS
43
Our success in driving these priorities forward for Scotland and
making Scotland a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative
nation will depend on how our public, private, and third sectors
work together.
Next steps include:
Preparing a Team Scotland action plan to further develop the
priorities in this framework over the period 2014-15 and
2015-16 involving public, private and third sectors and
including identi?cation of available resources.
Producing a communications plan to support implementation
of the priorities contained in this framework and the Team
Scotland action plan. This will include working with partners to
develop an all-Scotland calendar of events and communication
opportunities over the next three years.
Arranging annual Ministerial Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Summits in 2014, 2015 and 2016 that will bring together all
partners to review progress, implementation of actions and the
outcomes being achieved.
Involving the Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) in
monitoring and challenging the progress made in promoting
entrepreneurship and innovation within their sectors.
Providing regular online updates of case studies and good
practice examples.
Development of a performance monitoring tool which will help
to align activities across Team Scotland to achieve the greatest
impact. This will include benchmarking where we are now in
relation to entrepreneurship and innovation performance.
CONCLUSION
44
This framework document sets out the importance the Scottish
Government places on entrepreneurship and innovation as a key
way of accelerating sustainable economic growth. It has also
highlighted the areas we consider are future priorities for action to
make Scotland a CAN DO place – a world–leading entrepreneurial
and innovative nation.
In moving forward, working together will be key and we welcome
any comments on this framework. In particular, we welcome your
views on what you can do to increase Scotland’s competitiveness
and economic growth through increased entrepreneurship and
innovation. How can we work with you to achieve a better
Scotland – to make Scotland a CAN DO nation?
Please contact us at: [email protected]
#scotlandcando
w w w . s c o t l a n d . g o v . u k
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or e-mail: [email protected].
Where we have identi?ed any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
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Published by the Scottish Government, November 2013
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In this particular explanation related to scotland can do becoming a world leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation.
SCOTLAND CAN DO
BECOMING A WORLD-LEADING
ENTREPRENEURIAL AND INNOVATIVE NATION
MINISTERIAL FOREWORD
by John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for
Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth
1
John Swinney
MSP
Scotland has always been a CAN DO nation and we can be proud of
the impact that our people have made, and continue to make, on the
shape of the modern world. Today a new spirit of entrepreneurship
can be seen throughout Scotland and there is a real desire to effect
positive change across all parts of our economy. Often this is through
taking a distinctly Scottish approach in recognising the social as well as
economic bene?ts of entrepreneurship and innovation and by working
together creatively across the public, private, and third sectors. There
is a clear recognition that if we are to achieve sustainable economic
growth, and create opportunities for everyone to ?ourish, then we
must work together to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation
across Scotland.
This framework highlights the importance and ambition we attach to
entrepreneurship and innovation, the values that will inform our work
and our future priorities for action. Our commitment was shown in
the 2014-15 draft Budget which highlighted additional funding for
innovative measures to encourage a new age of entrepreneurship
across Scotland.
Just as importantly this framework asks what you can do – as an
individual, an entrepreneur or an innovative business – to help create
the types of businesses that will have the biggest positive impact on
Scotland and on the world.
Our vision is of Scotland as a world-leading entrepreneurial and
innovative nation – a CAN DO place for business. We invite all of our
enterprising citizens, businesses and organisations to join with us, in
a Team Scotland effort, to make that vision a reality.
SCOTLAND CAN DO
CAPABLE
Our entrepreneurs and innovators have the support, skills
and ?nance to start and develop growth enterprises.
AMBITIOUS
Scotland is a nation that values and celebrates
entrepreneurship and innovation.
NETWORKED
Our entrepreneurs and innovators can network
and work together to help ful?l their ambitions.
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
Stimulating demand and market opportunities to accelerate
the development of new products and services.
INTRODUCTION
2
The purpose of this framework is to set out our vision and
ambitions for becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and
innovative nation – a CAN DO place for business.
Our ambition is to achieve:
an increase in entrepreneurship and innovation activity from
individuals and businesses in Scotland resulting in more businesses
being formed and new products and services from existing
businesses;
more people from all walks of life with the ambition and skills
to create, lead and grow successful businesses;
an education system with entrepreneurship and innovation at
its core, seizing the opportunities presented by Curriculum for
Excellence, college reform and the world-leading strength of
our universities;
more of our knowledge and intellectual capital being
commercialised and greatly increased collaboration between
business and the academic sector; and
a greater focus on, and share of, global markets as our
business leaders grow in con?dence and expand their horizons
internationally.
This framework will contribute to the following National Outcomes
in Scotland’s Performance Framework:
1
We live in a Scotland that is the most attractive place for doing
business in Europe.
We realise our full economic potential with more and better
employment opportunities for our people.
We are better educated, more skilled and more successful,
renowned for our research and innovation.
1 See Scotland Performs at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/
scotPerforms
3
There are three speci?c National Indicators that will help us
to measure performance towards becoming a world-leading
entrepreneurial and innovative nation:
Increase the number of businesses.
2
Increase research and development spending.
3
.
Improve knowledge exchange from university research.
4
The document sets out:
What is entrepreneurship and innovation?
Why are entrepreneurship and innovation important?
2 See chart at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/
businesses#chart
3 See chart at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/
indicator/research
4 See chart at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/
indicator/knowledge
Our values and approach.
Scotland’s entrepreneurial and innovative spirit.
Understanding our challenges.
Priorities moving forward.
Channelling change and next steps.
This framework has evolved from on-going discussions with a wide
range of stakeholders across Scotland, including workshops held in
May and June 2013. The document has also been published in an
expanded interactive format, featuring additional case studies and
details of current activity.
4
CASE STUDY
SAFETRAY
An Edinburgh company producing a non-topple drinks tray has
secured deals to supply two of America’s largest food services
companies and a renowned hotel with its innovative product,
supported by Business Gateway.
Sodexo USA, Compass Group USA and the Four Seasons Hotel,
Las Vegas, were among the ?rst to purchase Safetray,
5
a non-
topple drinks tray invented by Alison Grieve. Alison came up
with the idea for the product after a tray of champagne worth
hundreds of pounds toppled over at an event she had organised.
Speaking about the major order, she said:
“Securing orders with such leading names in the hospitality
industry highlights how innovative the product is. It’s amazing
to think that a product made by a small Scottish company will
now be used in places such as Alaska, San Francisco and New
York.”
5http://safetrayproducts.com/
5
To succeed businesses need both these elements: entrepreneurs
who can identify real market opportunities and the innovative
skills to translate a good idea into a marketable product.
Government’s role is to provide the supportive environment in
which such businesses can succeed and accelerate growth in our
economy.
All business development and business start-up is important to
our economy. The focus of this entrepreneurship and innovation
framework, however, is on those businesses and business ideas
which have the greatest potential for growth, internationalisation
and economic bene?t.
innovation and technological change of a nation came from the
entrepreneurs, or wild spirits.
Joseph Schumpeter, 1939
“
“
WHAT ARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND INNOVATION?
It is important to de?ne what we mean by entrepreneurship and
innovation.
Entrepreneurship is a mindset seeking new opportunities which
can be turned into sustained business growth. Entrepreneurs are
those who seek to generate value through the creation or expansion
of economic activity by identifying and exploiting new products,
processes or markets.
Innovation is the process by which ideas can be turned into new
or signi?cantly improved products, services or business processes.
While products and services vary widely, the innovation process
requires creativity and connectivity between customers, suppliers,
?nanciers and other partners.
WHY ARE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND INNOVATION IMPORTANT?
Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovative
employment generation and economic growth. Only by
creating an environment where entrepreneurship can
prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and
empower others can we ensure that many of the world’s
problems will not go unaddressed.
Klaus Schwab, Chair World Economic Forum 2009
“
“
6
Entrepreneurship and innovation are important because of the
contribution they can make to securing the Government’s purpose
of creating sustainable economic growth. This is through:
improving Scotland’s competitiveness through businesses which
have the greatest potential for growth, internationalisation and
economic bene?t, including through the creation of jobs; and
?nding solutions to society’s most dif?cult problems and so
creating a more equitable and sustainable future.
As the Government Economic Strategy (2011) states: “Scotland
is a country rich in economic potential. Our people are creative,
ambitious and resilient and we are home to world-class
entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers. It is vital we harvest
the opportunity that this provides.”
6
Entrepreneurship and innovation are also key elements of the
European Union’s Europe 2020 aim of smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth. The resources available through the European
programmes from 2014-20, including the Horizon 2020
programme, can potentially accelerate Scotland’s ambition to be
a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation. So too
can our continued membership of the EU’s Smart Specialisation
6http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/EconomicStrategy
Platform,
7
which promotes a focus on those areas within a region
or country that provide unique competitive advantage.
Innovation is seen as the engine of long term economic
development and has underpinned much of the UK’s productivity
growth. As Nesta highlighted in its recent publication Plan I –
The Case for Innovation-Led Growth, “63 per cent of productivity
growth in the last decade came either directly or indirectly from
innovation”.
8
Investment in innovation is a prominent feature
in the strategies of many successful small economies, including
Finland
9
and Denmark.
10
It is also crucial to consider that demand from consumers, whether
individuals, businesses or the public sector, is the most important
factor in the success or failure of businesses. Innovation and
entrepreneurship can help stimulate that demand and generate
market opportunities for new products and services, leading to
economic growth.
7http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home
8http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/PlanIwebv3.pdf
9http://www.tem.?/en/innovations/innovation_policy
10http://?vu.dk/en/newsroom/issues/innovation-strategy
7
CASE STUDY
REAL-LIFE ENTREPRENEURS
The Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) Real-Life
Entrepreneurs campaign
11
is designed to celebrate and
support the UK’s small businesses community.
The small business lobby organisation, which has 200,000
members – 19,000 of them in Scotland – believe that
turning a good idea into a business is one of the most
positive acts an individual can perform for themselves and
the community in which they live.
11http://www.fsb.org.uk/campaigns/assets/entrepreneurship
man?est%20web.pdf
CASE STUDY
CREATIVE CLYDE
Creative Clyde
12
is a ?ourishing, vibrant centre for media,
technology and creatively minded businesses. In August
2013, 11 creative and digital businesses in Glasgow
won £620,000 between them to develop innovative
new products and services. The funding was awarded
at the conclusion of The Digital and Creative Clyde
Launchpad competition, run by the Technology Strategy
Board in partnership with Creative Clyde. Winning bids
include a digital tag for wireless monitoring and security
applications; a 3D virtual reality technology that creates
branding and training experiences; and computer games
rendering technology that will help make feature ?lms
easier and cheaper to produce.
12http://www.creativeclyde.com/
8
Today in Scotland it is right that all of our people should have
the opportunity to bene?t from sustainable economic growth.
In driving forward entrepreneurship and innovation, we believe
that:
The ambition, drive and leadership of individuals is crucial and
must be nurtured and developed within school and beyond. An
entrepreneurial mindset can be learned and a culture that supports
it created.
Entrepreneurial and innovative companies are found across all
business sectors. While many innovations are technology-based,
other forms of innovation can equally provide a competitive
advantage – it is the potential to create value and accelerate
growth that is important.
A range of business models are important, including employee
ownership, co-operatives and social enterprises.
There should be greater inclusion and involvement in
entrepreneurship and innovation across society.
Internal entrepreneurship and innovation – intrapreneurship –
is crucial to companies wishing to keep their competitive edge in
a global market.
Design, design-thinking and creativity are part of an innovative
approach.
Increasing collaboration within and beyond Scotland, and involving
the public, private and third sectors working together, is key to
success.
The public sector has an important role in creating a supportive
business environment for entrepreneurship and innovation; in
being a role model for innovation; through novel approaches to
procurement; and in seeking to stimulate both innovation and
market demand.
Constitutional change in Scotland could provide a range of policy
and ?nancial levers to further promote entrepreneurship and
innovation in Scotland.
OUR VALUES
AND APPROACH
9
CASE STUDY
INNOVATION THROUGH EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP
Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish
Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands
Enterprise that supports company growth through collaborative
and employee ownership business models.
An employee-owned business is one in which the employees
hold the majority of the shares either directly or through an
employee bene?t trust. Employee ownership gives employees
a meaningful stake in their organisation together with a genuine
say in how it is run.
Since its employee buyout in 2002, Dyce based manufacturing
and engineering business Woollard & Henry has seen a
remarkable 30 per cent increase on pro?tability every year,
innovating with new products and markets. Operating in a
declining industry, the employees had to ?nd new markets for
their products and new uses for their skills.
The company developed an international customer base within
the paper industry and now exports more than 60 per cent of
its output, and supplies 23 out of the 28 global producers of
currency. It also provides high quality bespoke solutions to the
oil and gas sector. As a result, employee numbers have risen
from 22 to 57.
Employees of
Woollard & Henry
10
We are a nation rightly proud of our rich heritage of entrepreneurs,
innovators and creative people. Indeed, some have even argued that
“Scots invented the modern world”.
13
From inventing the television, the telephone and radar to
discovering penicillin and developing beta-blockers, our past
achievements as a nation are signi?cant and varied. Today,
cutting-edge work such as the technology of ‘tractor-beams’
presently being led by the University of St Andrews, the
development of the next generation of prosthetic limbs by Touch
Bionics and ADL’s world–leading hybrid buses, shows that the CAN
DO spirit is alive and well in Scotland.
13 Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World –
Arthur Herman (2001)
SCOTLAND’S ENTREPRENEURIAL
AND INNOVATIVE SPIRIT
CASE STUDY
TOUCH BIONICS
Touch Bionics was the ?rst spin-out from the NHS to receive
signi?cant private and public sector investment, including
from Archangel Informal Investments and the Scottish Co-
investment Fund. Building on this support, the company
launched the i-limb™ hand in 2007. This was the ?rst
powered prosthetic hand to incorporate articulating ?ngers.
The following year it acquired US company, livingskin™,
which provides the lifelike passive functional prostheses and
prosthetic coverings for the i-limb™ technology.
Touch Bionics continues to innovate and lead the world in the
development of upper limb prosthetic technologies. This year
the company introduced the latest generation of advanced
prosthetic technology, i-limb™ ultra revolution, a myoelectric
prosthesis with powered rotating thumb and a mobile app
allowing the user to program and control features whilst on
the move.
11
Alongside our nation’s inventiveness we celebrate the great men
and women whose entrepreneurial spirits have created jobs and
growth, both at home and abroad. From Sir Thomas Lipton and
Andrew Carnegie in the nineteenth century to Lord Haughey,
Sir Tom Hunter and Ann Gloag OBE, who are working with us on
the Scottish EDGE fund judging panel, Scotland’s entrepreneurs
are renowned not just for their business success but also their
philanthropic endeavours.
We maintain a strong network of higher education institutions,
?ve of which rank in the global top 200 universities,
14
and there
is a real focus on business across our further and higher education
sectors – ensuring that while we rightly celebrate our past and
current successes we also pave the way for future ones.
14http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/
world-ranking
CASE STUDY
HEBRIDEAN SEA SALT
Natalie Crayton launched Hebridean Sea Salt, based in
South Lochs, in 2010 after spotting a gap in the market for
Scottish sea salt. Thanks to funding advice secured through
Business Gateway, Natalie, who studied marine biology, was
able to build her own unique production unit manufacturing
600 packs of salt a week.
Now, with increasing demand for her crunchy sea salt made
using the unpolluted water off the Isle of Lewis, she hopes
to secure further investment to allow her to eventually
produce up to 1,000 packets a day.
“
“
Without the advice and funding secured through Business Gateway
and Highlands and Islands Enterprise I wouldn’t have been able to
get so far. My plan now is to source further investment that will
allow me to expand into additional units and massively increase
production.
Natalie Crayton
12
Shown clockwise from top left,
members of the Entrepreneurial
Exchange Hall of Fame:
Charan Gill MBE, Sir Tom Hunter,
Duncan Bannatyne, Lord Willie
Haughey OBE, Sir Arnold Clark and
Ann Gloag OBE, Reproduced
with kind permission of The
Entrepreneurial Exchange -
© broad daylight
13
There are a number of positive signs emerging which indicate
that Scotland is already moving forward in achieving greater
entrepreneurship and innovation:
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2013) noted that in 2012
the rate of Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)
15
in
Scotland was 6.9 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent in 2011.
Over the last three years, Scotland’s TEA rate has moved from
being in the fourth quartile amongst 20 innovation driven
nations to the second quartile.
16
Scotland is in the top quartile of OECD countries for research and
development spend by the higher education sector (2011).
17
Scotland has been recognised as the best place in the UK to start
a life science business for the second year in a row.
18
We are securing more money and participating in more projects in
the EU’s ?agship Research and Innovation Programme, Framework
Programme 7, than at any time in our history.
15 The percentage of the adult working age population that are actively trying to
start a business, or that own and manage businesses that are less than three
and a half years old.
16http://www.strath.ac.uk/huntercentre/research/gem/
17http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/RD/GERDreport
18http://mobiuslifesciences.com/news/2012/12/?ndings-of-the-2012-uk-life-
science-start-up-report-realignment-/
A comprehensive and aligned ecosystem of support for
entrepreneurship and innovation has developed with considerable
renewed enthusiasm across the public, private and third sectors.
All signs that point to a new entrepreneurial and innovative spirit
alive in Scotland.
14
CASE STUDY
MORPHSUITS
Since it was founded in 2009 by Ali Smeaton, his brother Fraser
and friend Gregor Lawson, Morphsuits
19
has grown to a
£12 million turnover business. The company now employs
23 people in their of?ces in Edinburgh and London and have
recently acquired a business in California, USA.
Morphsuits are full body suits made from polyester and spandex
to make them super stretchy. The three founders initially
targeted 10,000 Facebook fans in the hope that it might pay
for a skiing holiday. However, they achieved that in a matter of
weeks and now have over 1.3 million social media followers.
Their advice to budding entrepreneurs is as follows:
“Do test your idea quickly and cheaply:
Morphsuits was our third idea. Despite our research, planning
and passion for the previous ideas we just couldn’t get them off
the ground. However, because we had launched them for little
money it meant that all we lost was our time and in return we
got a lot of learning that proved very useful with our following
ideas.
19http://www.morphsuits.co.uk/
15
CASE STUDY
MORPHSUITS
Do continue to keep your job until your concept is proven:
We kept our jobs for 18 months after launching Morphsuits
and while it was very hard work it meant that we could
reinvest all our pro?ts in growth because we could live off our
salaries. Just make sure your new venture isn’t competing
with your day job!
Do outsource:
This does two brilliant things for a start-up: 1. It means you
can keep your costs variable so you can scale up and down
with demand; 2. You can bring in experts in all areas of the
business. At Morphsuits we outsource absolutely everything
other than actually running the business.
Don’t keep it secret:
Too many people think that their idea is so special that if they
tell anyone it will be copied. Don’t believe it. The chances of
your idea being stolen are tiny and you will miss out on loads
of valuable feedback and introductions. At Morphsuits we
talk to as many people as possible and through that we have
found our manufacturers, our logistics ?rm and many more
innovations. Start a little black book.
Don’t wait until everything is 100% perfect before getting going:
If you wait until everything is perfect you will never launch
because nothing is ever perfect. When you launch, your
customers will forgive a few imperfections and you will have
started learning and earning money.
Don’t start something you don’t know how to monetise:
We all hear about Twitter and Facebook who drive huge
valuations before generating any revenue. Don’t be misled;
this only works for a few Silicon Valley venture capital backed
businesses. Having a business that generates revenues from
day one keeps you motivated and provides capital to ?nance
growth.”
Too many people think that their idea is so special that if they tell
anyone it will be copied. Don’t believe it. The chances of your idea
being stolen are tiny and you will miss out on loads of valuable
feedback and introductions.
“
“
16
Despite our strong track record of entrepreneurship and
innovation, and many great entrepreneurial individuals and
innovative companies, Scotland faces a number of challenges.
Innovation in Scotland has been characterised as a conundrum –
a high performing academic sector but lagging business innovation
performance in relation to research and development.
During the past two years we have been developing our
understanding of this. A review of Scotland’s Innovation System
undertaken by the Technopolis Group helped to crystallise the key
strategic challenges requiring attention and to highlight where
changes are required to improve economic growth.
20
This includes
developing a multi-annual action plan for prioritising investments
and ensuring university spin-off companies make more impact
on the Scottish economy. There is also a need to increase the
current low numbers of enterprises participating in research and
development and innovation activity.
The Scottish team participating in the Regional
Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP),
21
led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), has been studying the interaction between
innovative and entrepreneurial capacities in Scotland
and globally. Well-functioning systems in the public and private
sectors enable innovation-based businesses to grow in number and
scale. These companies exploit knowledge to create employment,
trade internationally and contribute more to Scotland’s economy.
20 “A Smart, sustainable nation?” Review of research and innovation policy in
Scotland – Reid, 2012.
21http://reap.mit.edu/
When compared to world leading innovation-based nations,
Scotland fares well, but the following have been identi?ed by the
Scottish REAP team as areas where collective action across the
private and public sectors would help businesses to grow and
innovate:
Effective connections between ambitious entrepreneurs, investors,
leaders of Scotland’s largest businesses, and policy makers.
Skills for growth including sales, leadership and human resources.
Increasing the role of universities in providing entrepreneurship
education, sharing best practice, and advocacy.
Promoting entrepreneurial role models from all parts of society.
Securing appropriate ?nance to support business growth across all
key sectors.
The REAP Scotland team will publish their detailed
recommendations early in 2014.
UNDERSTANDING
OUR CHALLENGES
PRIORITIES MOVING
FORWARD
17
In order to grow our economy and address key social issues by
becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation
we need to take action to develop our strengths and address the
challenges we face.
We need a collective approach that brings companies, universities,
public agencies and customers together to exploit more of the
opportunities that drive growth and increase exports.
We consider there are four main themes to transform Scotland’s
performance as an entrepreneurial and innovative nation. These
themes have been generated by assessing existing evidence
and analysis and through discussions with stakeholders across
the public, private and third sectors. They will guide how Team
Scotland moves forward and will be the focus of our key priorities
over the next three years.
SCOTLAND CAN DO
CAPABLE
Our entrepreneurs and innovators have the support, skills
and ?nance to start and develop growth enterprises.
AMBITIOUS
Scotland is a nation that values and celebrates
entrepreneurship and innovation.
NETWORKED
Our entrepreneurs and innovators can network
and work together to help ful?l their ambitions.
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
Stimulating demand and market opportunities to accelerate
the development of new products and services.
SUPPORTING GROWTH
18
PRINCE’S
TRUST (YBS)
YBS
GROWTH
FUND
E-SPARK
SCOTTISH
EDGE
GLOBAL
SCOT
SCOTTISH
INVESTMENT
BANK
FIRSTPORT
BG
GROWTH
PIPELINE
ENTERPRISE
AGENCIES
BUSINESS
ANGELS
Specialist and
Very High Growth
Investment
BUSINESS
GATEWAY
BUSINESS
MENTORING
SCOTLAND
BUSINESS
GROWTH
FUND
BRIGHT
IDEA
SCOTLAND
High Growth
Investment
and Support
Transition
to Growth
First Steps
NB: this diagram is an indication of some of the key agencies and resources available
to support business growth and ambition in Scotland. It is not intended to be
exhaustive.
CAPABLE
OUR ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS HAVE THE SUPPORT,
SKILLS, AND FINANCE TO START AND DEVELOP GROWTH
ENTERPRISES.
In order to innovate and grow, businesses need to have the right
team in place with the necessary leadership and technical skills to
create new products and services. They need to have access to the
right kind of business support as well as the opportunities of the
digital economy and appropriate, affordable ?nance. A supportive
regulatory regime that reduces the burden of bureaucracy on our
entrepreneurs and innovators is also required. The Scottish Business
Resilience Centre
22
can help our businesses to safeguard their assets.
There is already a range of business support for entrepreneurs
and innovators with growth potential across Scotland and we
will continue to work to ensure this is aligned and focused on the
needs of business.
22http://www.sbcc.org.uk/
19
CASE STUDY
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPARK (E-SPARK)
A ?ve month business accelerator – Hatchery – where start-
ups and early stage businesses are nurtured, enabled and
challenged, E-Spark
23
is about the entrepreneur, their mindset
and how they go about their business, regardless of sector.
E-Spark look for a workable idea and the look in the eye that
shouts – I am going to do this!
E-Spark offers start-up support, business mentoring, workshops,
of?ce space, IT and facilities all free in a collaborative
environment for like-minded entrepreneurs to test their ideas,
network and, ideally, grow. Packed into a structured ?ve month
programme designed to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and
behaviours, E-Spark is currently located across three Hatcheries
in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayrshire.
23http://www.entrepreneurial-spark.com/
20
We will continue to invest in those companies with the greatest
potential for growth, internationalisation and economic bene?t
through schemes such as SMART: Scotland; R&D Grant for Business;
Proof of Concept and Knowledge Transfer Grant; Smart Exporter;
and the Entrepreneurial Development Programme. See the Scottish
Business Portal
24
for full details of current schemes and support.
The next programme of European Structural and Investment
(ESI) Funds 2014-20 will also support entrepreneurship and
growth through an increased focus on business competitiveness
and innovation. The funds will focus on the key drivers of
growth through offering business advice, support and leadership
development which bridges current services and makes it
easier to start and grow a business in Scotland. Additional
innovation support will better link academia to business and
commercialisation by helping businesses to develop new globally
competitive products, services and processes. Overall, the support
from the ESI funds will help to identify the next set of high growth
companies, in particular focusing on those which could achieve
growth in the next ?ve years and helping those companies achieve
and sustain that growth.
24http://www.business.scotland.gov.uk/
Our entrepreneurs and innovators need access to the right skills
and training for themselves and their employees that will help
them to develop and grow their enterprises. The industry led
Skills Investment Plans, delivered through Skills Development
Scotland (SDS), provide a framework for businesses and employers
to articulate the right skills needed to support the development of
Scotland’s growth sectors. SDS’s web service for individuals, My
World of Work
25
is currently developing a suite of new content
on enterprise and entrepreneurship due for launch early 2014.
Using a range of tools, features and case studies, the content
will introduce enterprise skills and their relevance to career
development; and help individuals consider entrepreneurship as
a potential career path.
Our colleges and universities are crucial to ensure our businesses
have access to a supply of entrepreneurial and innovative
graduates equipped with the skills, training and appetite to
join growing businesses. The Scottish Funding Council engages
with colleges and universities to highlight the need for applied
learning and understanding of business needs. The WildHearts
Foundation
26
has been promoting ‘entrepreneurial apprentices’ who
will be placed with high growth potential businesses.
25http://www.myworldofwork.co.uk
26http://www.wildheartsinaction.org/
21
The digital economy is key to much entrepreneurial activity
and innovation and to support our businesses to work in the
digital economy we are investing in infrastructure that will allow
super-fast broadband rollout across Scotland. The Step Change
Programme
27
is putting in place infrastructure that will have the
capacity to deliver next generation broadband to at least 85 per
cent of premises by 2015-16 and 95 per cent by 2017-18. There
will also be a new Digital Scotland Economy Partnership with our
public and private sector partners, to ensure that all of Scotland’s
businesses can bene?t from the digital age.
A particular challenge for any entrepreneurial and innovative
business is securing ?nance for growth, particularly in the current
economic context. We will therefore continue to work with the
banks to improve the supply of ?nance to new and growing
ventures and with Scotland’s vibrant Business Angel community.
Scottish Enterprise will provide advisory services for companies
seeking to access ?nance, including through the ?nance hub of
the Scottish Business Portal
28
and a team of investment readiness
specialists. The Scottish Investment Bank
29
will continue to
27http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/digital/action/Makingprogress
28http://www.business.scotland.gov.uk/Funding
29http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/scottish-investment-
bank.aspx
work with our most entrepreneurial and innovative companies
to ensure they have debt and equity ?nancial solutions. We are
also investigating the potential of non-bank ?nance such as peer-
to-peer lending and crowd funding, including funding a Saltire
Fellowship to investigate the US experience.
A key opportunity for Scotland is to help unleash the growth
potential in our established middle–sized companies, many of
which are family businesses with proud heritages. The Scottish
Government will therefore work with the Federation of Small
Businesses, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Business Gateway
and our enterprise agencies to develop the entrepreneurial and
innovative capability of Scotland’s established businesses.
22
Priorities moving forward:
Providing aligned and focussed business support to improve
entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities.
Having a range of public sector investment support available.
Focussing on the skills businesses need to innovate and grow.
Supporting entrepreneurs and innovative businesses to work in
the digital economy.
Working to secure greater access to ?nance.
Working with our established middle-sized companies to
support growth potential.
23
CASE STUDY
SCOTTISH EDGE – ENCOURAGING DYNAMIC GROWTH
ENTREPRENEURS
The Scottish EDGE Fund
30
is a collaboration between Scottish
Government, Entrepreneurial Spark, Royal Bank of Scotland,
Business Gateway and our enterprise agencies. It targets
ambitious entrepreneurs wishing to establish or grow
their business and provides real opportunities for them to
contribute to Scotland’s economic success. In the ?rst two
rounds, the competition has awarded over £1.2 million of
support to 34 young Scottish businesses with real growth
potential.
Clear Returns
31
predictive technology has the power to save
retailers signi?cant money, by highlighting the products,
processes, suppliers and customers causing costly returns – and
triggering intelligent responses. They help e-commerce and
multichannel retailers optimise for pro?t, not simply sales. The
company is already working with major UK and international
retailers, including Scottish headquartered retailer M & Co. Clear
Returns was recently named Best New Product at the 2013
30http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/other-sources-
of-funding/scottish-edge.aspx
31http://www.clearreturns.com/about-us/
Digital Technology Awards, won IBM SmartCamp in Dublin and
the Big Data Venture Challenge in Rome.
Clear Returns was assisted with £30,000 of Scottish EDGE
funding, which has helped it focus on sales development and
a SMART: Scotland award that has helped development of the
highly innovative technology. The company is now raising up to
£1 million to fund global expansion.
The team at Clear Returns –
a Scottish EDGE winning company
24
We need to ensure that entrepreneurship and innovation is
embedded across Scottish society and that Scotland is truly
seen as a CAN DO place. Within a global marketplace where
competitive advantage is realised through innovative products,
processes and business models, fostering an entrepreneurial and
ambitious culture is essential. Scotland needs more people with an
entrepreneurial mindset and ambition, with a greater appetite for
risk and reward, people who can create new products and services
and grow companies of international scale.
Our education system is key to realising our ambition. Through
Curriculum for Excellence, teachers and others who support
young people’s learning are able to inspire and unleash the
potential of our next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.
AMBITIOUS
SCOTLAND IS A NATION THAT VALUES AND CELEBRATES
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION.
Curriculum for Excellence’s framework for learning and teaching
has enterprise as one of ?ve cross-cutting themes which underpin
learning across the whole curriculum. Our former enterprise in
education strategy, Determined to Succeed, was embedded within
Curriculum for Excellence from April 2011. The Scottish Councils’
Enterprise in Education Network (SCEEN) meets regularly to share
intelligence and best practice across the country in enterprise and
entrepreneurial activity in schools and other settings.
The Scottish Government will be facilitating collaborative work
between Education Scotland, the Association of Directors of
Education in Scotland, Micro-Tyco, the Social Enterprise Academy,
Young Enterprise Scotland, The Prince’s Trust and other partners to
create further accessible resources for schools and pupils.
“
“
I didn’t really like school. I got suspended twice but I can’t really
remember why. We had to borrow a pound from Micro-Tyco, and
when I was sitting thinking about it, the only thing I’d do with a
pound before would be to buy a scratchy card or put a football
coupon on. Now I know how to go about setting up a business and
making investments.
25
CASE STUDY
MICRO-TYCO
Micro-Tyco
32
is a ground-breaking enterprise challenge, run
by the WildHearts Foundation, that has brought together over
10,000 participants, from school children to business executives.
Micro-Tyco’s vision is to ignite the spirit of enterprise across our
culture.
Taking inspiration from the spirit of WildHearts micro?nance
clients in the developing world, Micro-Tyco challenges teams to
grow £1 into as much money as possible in just four weeks. Its
unique combination of inspiration, business mentorship, positive
peer pressure and ethics produces incredible results. To date,
over £500,000 has been returned from just 1,900 £1 loans.
Jamie Maguire was a 16 year-old school excludee when he
participated in Micro-Tyco. Even so, his team transformed their
£1 micro-loan into £1,500. His success in Micro-Tyco attracted
the attention of Arnold Clark, who have since taken Jamie on as
a trainee mechanic.
32http://www.wildheartsinaction.org/microtyco
26
Entrepreneurship and innovation also need to be further
promoted across Scotland’s colleges and universities as exciting
career options available for talented individuals. Scotland’s new
regional college structure presents an exciting opportunity to do
this and will be an integral part of increasing entrepreneurship
and innovation across Scotland. The Independent Commission
for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce,
33
chaired by Sir
Ian Wood, will also be examining the potential for increasing
entrepreneurship as it concludes its work.
The Scottish Government and RBS are facilitating Young Enterprise
Scotland’s Bridge2Business
34
initiative to boost aspiration and
capability towards starting businesses amongst our college students.
The aim of the project is to inspire, connect and support college
students into business. It is being piloted at City of Glasgow College.
33http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/09/7161
34http://www.yes.org.uk/news/2013/sep/bridge2business-hits-the-ground-run-
ning.htm
Laura-Jayne Nevin – a winner of the
Young Innovators Challenge
CASE STUDY
YOUNG INNOVATORS CHALLENGE
The Scottish Government has also supported the Young
Innovators Challenge
35
– a competition aimed at encouraging
young people in college, training or university to come up with
innovative ideas. Funded by the Scottish Government, the
competition is run by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise.
In the 2013 competition, entrants were asked to create innovative
solutions to challenges set by industry leaders. Finalists then
pitched their ideas to a business panel of experts for the chance
to win development funding up to £50,000 and business support.
Laura-Jayne Nevin, a graduate from Edinburgh College of Art,
was a 2013 winner. Laura-Jayne intends to open Wool & Co,
a contemporary yarn boutique and knitting studio that aims to
encourage the younger generation into knitting.
35http://www.sie.ac.uk/about-sie/sie-activities/young-innovators-challenge
27
There is widespread agreement around the importance of role
models in developing an entrepreneurial and innovative culture.
We are currently supporting the 1001 Enterprising Scots
36
project
to develop a repository of video resources featuring a wide
range of Scots talking about their businesses. This will be freely
available and searchable allowing experiences of entrepreneurship
and innovation to be shared. Further promotion of role models
will be vital in raising levels of ambition.
A key principle we value is to promote inclusiveness in
entrepreneurship and innovation, working with key business, social
and third sector organisations to ensure all members of society in
Scotland are able to realise their potential to be entrepreneurs and
innovators. This includes working with the Enterprise Research
Centre at Strathclyde University
37
in order to better understand
how black and ethnic minority entrepreneurs can be better
supported and celebrated and also to promote entrepreneurship
by women.
36http://www.scotpreneur.org.uk/
37http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/2012/headline_674776_en.html
CASE STUDY
WOMEN’S ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND
Women’s Enterprise Scotland
38
will collaborate with public,
private and third sector partners to lead on a framework
of actions speci?c to tackling the gender gap evident
in enterprise and growth. This will include a project
that ensures that successful women entrepreneurs are
appropriately celebrated and are aided in sharing their
skills and insights with the next generation of Scottish
businesswomen.
38http://www.wescotland.co.uk/
28
CASE STUDY
THE PRINCE’S INITIATIVE
FOR MATURE ENTERPRISE
(PRIME)
The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise
39
is dedicated
to providing everyone over 50, who is unemployed or
under threat of redundancy, with the support to achieve
?nancial, social and personal ful?lment through sustainable
self-employment. The Scottish operation commenced in
February 2013 with a three-year target to help create
300 new businesses with the over 50s, including through
awareness sessions and training.
Jimmy, 63, attended PRIME’s three-day Glasgow business
training course in April 2013 and has gone on to establish
a business designing jewellery that has a sporting and
inspirational twist. Jimmy believes that the training
provided by PRIME has helped him to keep focus and meant
he has been able to move his ideas forward.
39http://www.prime.org.uk
VisitScotland has been promoting entrepreneurial ambition
through its Thistle Awards
40
which feature a category of Tourism
Entrepreneur. Over 100 entries were received demonstrating the
entrepreneurial energy in the sector.
WildHearts and their partners are working towards the
establishment of a signi?cant annual prize for ready-to-market
business ideas that will offer a positive outcome for ‘global good’.
Our town centres can be at the heart of enterprise and community
as identi?ed in the National Review of Town Centres External
Advisory Report.
41
The Scottish Government, Scotpreneur, the Scottish Business
Resilience Centre and other partners will deliver a competition that
enables the key actors within our town centres to enhance and
develop their local entrepreneurial ecosystems. By supporting the
development of these ‘living labs’ we will ensure that our town
centres are equipped to support the economic and social aspirations
of their communities.
40http://www.scottishthistleawards.co.uk/
41http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-
centres/review
29
Priorities moving forward:
Through Curriculum for Excellence, supporting teachers and
schools to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and
innovators.
Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation across our colleges
and universities.
Promoting a series of inspirational entrepreneurial and
innovative role models.
Delivering a series of projects to realise the potential for a
wider range of people across Scottish society to engage in
entrepreneurship and innovation.
Supporting the ambition for our town centres to be at the heart
of enterprise and community in Scotland.
30
CASE STUDY
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT
STOW COLLEGE
Stow College in Glasgow (becoming part of the new Glasgow
Kelvin College) is currently the only Scottish member of the
Gazelle Colleges group: a group of 20 UK colleges committed to
improving teaching and learning through an entrepreneurial-
based approach, ensuring that students leave college with the
attitude, skills and capabilities needed for success.
In September 2012, Stow established Scotland’s ?rst
Peter Jones Enterprise Academy (PJEA). Backed by the
Dragon’s Den entrepreneur, PJEA at Stow offers learners the
opportunity to achieve a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Enterprise
and Entrepreneurship. Learners also have an opportunity to
develop the essential skills and attitudes for today’s business
world. The programme includes students setting up their own
business or social enterprise. Natalie Morrison and Serign
Sanneh are two of the successful students from the ?rst PJEA
intake at Stow.
Natalie has been successful in securing a
place on E-Spark’s Business Accelerator
Programme. Her company, You-olo (You
Only Live Once), is an online platform
designed to give 16-24 year olds the
con?dence, knowledge and support that
they need to start their own businesses.
Serign’s business has also been accepted on to
E-Spark’s Accelerator programme. PalmAfrica.
com is an online directory and marketplace
aimed at helping Africans and Caribbeans in
the UK to become more enterprising and to
help existing businesses to grow.
“Stow College and PJEA presented me with endless opportunities. In
October 2013 during Black History Month, PalmAfrica.com will be
of?cially launched with various workshops and an entrepreneurship
competition launched which will then become an annual event.”
Serign
I applied to PJEA at Stow College in the hope that I could change my
career path. And that is exactly what has happened, no looking back
now. I can now walk out into the business world with my own net-
work!
Natalie
“
“
31
Supporting businesses which have the greatest potential for
growth, internationalisation and economic bene?t requires a
linking together of the people, ideas, experience, technology,
?nance and production networks needed to successfully develop
new ideas and methods and then bringing them to scale and
market. We also need to improve creation and exploitation
of knowledge across the innovation system, including through
encouraging more collaborations between businesses and between
businesses and academia.
The network between business and academia is crucial. There is a
need to support and promote the bene?ts of knowledge exchange
collaborations between businesses, universities and colleges that
deliver a positive economic impact.
NETWORKED
OUR ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS CAN NETWORK AND
WORK TOGETHER TO HELP FULFIL THEIR AMBITIONS.
CASE STUDY
COLLABORATION AT
ALEXANDER DENNIS
Alexander Dennis Limited
42
(ADL) is a great example of
where a collaborative approach built around an emerging
global market opportunity can really add to Scotland’s
competitive position internationally. In 2013 the ?rst
large collaborative Scottish Enterprise Research and
Development grant was awarded to ADL, BAE Systems and
the Power Network Demonstrator Centre to produce a new
bus system capable of operating in 100 per cent electric
mode via highly innovative underground on route charging
infrastructure. Unlike current electric hybrid buses where
the battery is topped by the diesel engine, the new bus can
run for up to 30 minutes with the engine off.
42http://www.alexander-dennis.com/favicon.ico
32
CASE STUDY
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PARTNERSHIP
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)
43
help businesses,
including social enterprises, improve their competitiveness and
productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology
and skills that reside within the UK Knowledge Base. Each KTP
programme brings together a company, academic institute and
one or more recently quali?ed students, known as KTP Associates,
in challenging projects that meet a core strategic need within the
company.
Currently funded by 15 Government organisations and led by
the Technology Strategy Board, with co-sponsors including the
Scottish Government and Research Councils, KTP partnerships
are designed to bene?t everyone involved. Outcomes include
increase in pro?tability for company partners; associates
gaining business-based experience and the Knowledge Base
partner enhancing the business relevance of their research and
teaching.
43http://www.ktponline.org.uk/of?ces
Such bene?ts were realised in Clyde Space’s KTP
44
with Strathclyde
University which helped establish the company at the forefront
of CubeSat micro-satellite design and position Scotland as a
leader in space technology. With the help of the partnership, the
company won a contract from the UK Space consortium for testing,
construction and assembly of UKube-1, the UK’s ?rst CubeSat
(nanosatellite) system.
44http://www.clyde-space.com/
The First Minister visiting
ClydeSpace to view UKube-1,
Scotland’s ?rst satellite
33
CASE STUDY
FRAUNHOFER
The Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics
45
was launched
in April 2013 and is based in Strathclyde University’s
Technology and Innovation Centre. A ?rst in the UK, the
Centre is the product of a collaborative effort between
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe’s largest organisation
for applied research, Strathclyde University, the Scottish
Government, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding
Council. It will be a hub for industry-driven laser research
and technology for sectors including healthcare, security,
energy and transport.
Fraunhofer UK Research Ltd is the umbrella organisation
for any future UK-based Fraunhofer research centres. It is
also based in Strathclyde University and will work across
universities and industry to ensure research is developed to
a stage where it can readily be adopted by industry.
45http://www.fraunhofer.co.uk/en/FraunhoferCentreForAppliedPhoton-
ics.html
The Scottish Funding Council
46
, working
with Scotland’s universities and
enterprise agencies, have launched
Innovation Scotland – a shared strategy
to increase the simplicity of, and improve
the effectiveness of, the support for
business growth through innovation
arising from collaboration with
universities.
The Innovation Scotland transformation agenda will be driven
by a high pro?le Innovation Scotland Forum to ensure that
opportunities to better support innovation and entrepreneurialism
are identi?ed and that effective action to stimulate business
demand for innovation is taken. Examples of the Innovation
Scotland strategy in action already include the enhanced work
of Interface and the ongoing creation of Scotland’s Innovation
Centres. These demand-led centres will stimulate economic growth
through the innovation arising from businesses and universities
working together.
46http://www.sfc.ac.uk/
34
CASE STUDY
INTERFACE CONNECTING
BUSINESS AND EDUCATION
Interface
47
is the matchmaker service which connects businesses
with Scotland’s 24 higher education and research institutes to
stimulate innovation and growth. Through intelligent brokerage
mechanisms and the face-to-face nature of Interface over 1,227
business and academic partnerships and around 750 collaborative
projects have been facilitated resulting in a wide range of societal
and economic bene?ts to support the Scottish economy. Over the
last year Interface has gone from strength to strength, broadening
its reach across all industry sectors from food and drink to tourism
and all regions both rural and urban.
Equal Adventure
48
is a company who recently worked with
Interface. Located near Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland,
Equal Adventure is a registered charity with an overall mission to
inspire and resource outdoor adventure, sport and active lifestyles
with disabled people.
47http://www.interface-online.org.uk/
48http://equaladventure.org/
The company had developed and created a prototype of snow board
bindings for double leg amputees and needed to complete stringent
laboratory-based assessments of the prototype. Interface identi?ed
the knowledge and facilities required within the University of
Strathclyde which enabled a student to undertake the design,
development and testing required.
The project resulted in a working prototype and enabled Equal
Adventure to demonstrate that the bindings were safe for use
by double leg amputees. In doing so they have been able to add
another product to their range and enter a new market for injured
veterans. This also safeguarded four jobs within the organisation
and a number of opportunities have been identi?ed for further
collaboration with universities.
35
Accessing European research and development funding is a key
way business and universities and colleges can work together.
To support this the Scottish Funding Council has launched a new
£400,000 funding scheme to help at least 80 Scottish businesses
break into the European research market. The Horizon 2020 SME
Engagement Scheme intends to support businesses to explore
Horizon 2020 European research funding opportunities with the
assistance of Scottish universities. The new voucher scheme
provides up to £5,000 of support for each project.
Mentoring is seen as an essential way for entrepreneurs and
innovative businesses to network with, gain insight from and
develop opportunities with more experienced business leaders.
The pro?le and understanding of mentoring needs to be raised to
ensure entrepreneurs and innovators are better able to access and
take advantage of the practice.
The Scottish Government will develop a comprehensive
understanding of the mentoring landscape. Following this we will
facilitate key partners to develop and promote a joined-up service
that better allows mentors to offer their skills and that enhances the
offer to potential mentees.
CASE STUDY
THE STRATIFIED MEDICINE
SCOTLAND INNOVATION
CENTRE
The Strati?ed Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre
49
is a
partnership involving Health Science Scotland
50
, Scottish
businesses and major global companies. It will have a base at
the new South Glasgow Hospital.
Strati?ed medicine exploits the latest advances in DNA
sequencing technology to determine the genetic make-up of
patients undergoing treatment for different diseases. The
goal is to ?nd which treatments work best in which patient
so clinicians can choose the most appropriate and effective
treatment for each patient. The SMS-IC will focus primarily
on developing new forms of effective treatment for chronic
diseases, including cancer, stroke, diabetes, rheumatoid
arthritis, and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The
aim is to lead a global transformation in healthcare delivery.
49http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2013/04/over-2000-jobs-at-
new-30million-innovation-centres
50http://www.healthsciencescotland.com
36
Priorities moving forward:
Ensure better collaboration and knowledge exchange between
businesses and between business and universities and colleges.
Implement Innovation Scotland and Innovation Centres to
support greater business and academic collaboration.
Support businesses to access European research and
development funds, particularly Horizon 2020.
Support and develop the opportunities for mentoring for our
entrepreneurs and innovative companies.
37
Entrepreneurship and innovation exists where there is customer
demand and market opportunities. We need an increased focus on
creating consumer demand for new products and services through
innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship. We need to ensure
Scottish companies are able to access market opportunities that
present themselves, particularly exporting and internationalisation,
including having the skills related to marketing and selling.
Customers can be instrumental in driving entrepreneurship and
innovation. These can be individual consumers or public or private
organisations. A key way to in?uence this is to use innovative
procurement to drive innovation and public service design
and delivery. This could include pre-commercial procurement
and setting challenges and competitions. European Regional
Development Funding has been allocated to support a pilot
programme to establish a Procurement Facilitator Programme.
The programme will focus on pre-commercial procurement,
looking to capture public sector needs, stimulate awareness and
understanding within the business community of the opportunities
available and aid skills and capacity transfer.
Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) could have a key role in advising
on ways to develop demand through innovation. Key to this will
be the cross-cutting Technology Advisory Group
51
, which brings
together industry and public agencies, and has the vision “to
unleash the inherent innovation and business potential that exists
within the Scottish Technology and Engineering Sector”.
51http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/your-sector/technology/strategy.aspx
DEMAND AND OPPORTUNITIES
STIMULATING DEMAND AND MARKET OPPORTUNITIES TO
ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES.
38
Government can also play a direct role in stimulating innovation,
and, using a challenge-based approach, can work together with
industry and other partners to come up with solutions to real life
public sector issues. The Scottish Government is now using this
model to take forward innovation in health in a way that supports
the development of innovative products for the Scottish market
and beyond.
NHSScotland has a Vision for 2020
53
that everyone will be able to
live longer healthier lives at home, or in a homely setting. A key
component of this is to move the focus of care and support away
from the hospital to the communities and homes where people
live. This vision is about transformational change, not incremental
improvement. To make this happen, innovative models of care and
different ways of working must be created and adopted.
The Scottish Collaborative Innovation Partnership Process (SCIPP)
54
is looking to address the NHSScotland 2020 challenge by promoting
radical thinking on extending and improving quality care outside
the hospital. The best ideas that emerge from the process will,
under sponsorship from the Scottish Government, be developed,
supported and scaled through appropriate support mechanisms
including NHS procurement, NHS planning, partnership working and
the Technology Strategy Board’s Small Business Research Initiative
programme.
53http://www.scot.nhs.uk/introduction.aspx
54 For details and application form, see the Scottish Government website at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-Performance/
Innovation-Health
CASE STUDY
INNOVATION PROCUREMENT AND
DEMAND STIMULATION
The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands
and Islands Enterprise are currently engaged in a pilot project
with Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd
52
(CMAL) to support an
innovative procurement approach to address unmet demand
for dockside charging solutions for their new hybrid ferries.
The approach looked at providing information to businesses
at the pre-commercial stage allowing the outline of the new
requirement to be described at an information day. This was
followed up using a competitive dialogue technique which
allowed discussions between interested businesses and CMAL
as part of the procurement process.
52http://www.cmassets.co.uk/en/home.html
39
HEALTH AND WEALTH IN SCOTLAND:
A STATEMENT OF INTENT FOR
INNOVATION IN HEALTH
Health And Wealth In Scotland: A Statement Of Intent For
Innovation In Health
55
highlights that Scotland is well placed
to be an international centre for innovation in health with
an integrated health service with major quality ambitions, a
strong life sciences industry, excellent informatics and ?rst
class universities and research capability.
The Statement sets out how partnership working with Government,
NHSScotland, industry and the research community can aid the
development, marketing and adoption of products and medicines
that are better matched to its needs, and which are evidence-
based. The Statement is an explicit driver to entrepreneurship and
innovation in Scottish companies in the life sciences and health
sectors to create and develop for market the next generation of
health technologies and solutions.
55http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-
Performance/Innovation-Health/Statement
To help support this aim the Scottish Government has launched
the Scottish Collaborative Innovation Partnership Process which
challenges a range of partners including Health Boards, industry,
academia and the third sector for innovative ideas that will
help transform future care outside hospitals. The best ideas
that emerge from the process will, under sponsorship from the
Scottish Government, be developed, supported and scaled through
appropriate support mechanisms including NHS procurement, NHS
planning, partnership working and the Small Business Research
Initiative programme.
40
A key way of generating new demand and opportunities is to
support the conversion of science and technology ideas into new
products and services which have the potential to signi?cantly
impact on our economy.
The Scottish Science Advisory Council report, Making the Most of
our Scientifc Excellence
56
(2013) concludes a two-year period of
work on this topic. Key recommendations in the report include,
amongst others:
that commercial skills should be embedded in all Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degree courses;
the establishment of an annual ‘entrepreneurship’ summer school;
that consideration be given to setting up a ‘payroll support’ scheme
to encourage post-graduate employment in Scottish SMEs;
encouraging the creation of one or more generic graduate training
scheme(s) matched to the needs of companies, including small and
start-up companies, that do not have in-house schemes; and
56http://www.scottishscience.org.uk/sites/default/?les/article-attachments/
Final%20SSAC%20Innovation%20report%20-%20FEB%2013_0.pdf
that a target 10 per cent of public procurement (health service, local
authority) be spent on innovative services and products from SMEs
and that the procurement process be redesigned to allow (and even
encourage) a higher level of risk in taking on new products and
services.
The Technology Strategy Board
57
(TSB) has contributed to a number
of recent innovation initiatives in Scotland focused on stimulating
demand and creating opportunities. The TSB will be a key partner
in developing this further.
57https://www.innovateuk.org/
41
CASE STUDY
OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY
CATAPULT
Funded through commercial funding and investment from
the Technology Strategy Board, Catapult is a network of
technology and innovation centres that aim to provide
businesses an opportunity to access facilities, equipment
and expertise so they can develop, test and exploit new
ideas and products in a number of key technology sectors.
Headquartered in Glasgow, the Offshore Renewable Energy
Catapult
58
will work with project developers, their supply
chain partners, testing facilities and others to develop,
commercialise and grow innovative technologies and
technological solutions in the ?eld of offshore renewable
energy.
58http://ore.catapult.org.uk
Exploratory work will also be undertaken as part of Scotland’s
membership of the Smart Specialisation Platform, to learn from
international good practice in areas such as demand driven
innovation policies, tools to enhance service–led innovation and
opportunities to engage more SMEs in innovation.
The impact of strong sales and marketing skills on the growth of
businesses is clear. Public, private and third sector partners will
therefore work in collaboration to develop and facilitate the skill-
sets of sales and marketing engagement and promote the value of
these skills.
Being able to export and access new international markets is a
key part of entrepreneurship and innovation. When companies
start to export, or reach into new markets, they will need to
innovate to address customer needs. For ?rms of all sizes there
is a strong positive association between innovation, exporting and
productivity and growth – innovation and exporting work jointly to
improve business performance.
Analysis shows that companies that received both innovation
support and internationalisation support report bigger impacts
than those that received just one of these.
59
Furthermore, SMEs
which have a track record of innovation are more likely to export,
more likely to export successfully, and more likely to generate
growth from exporting than non-innovating ?rms.
60
59http://www.evaluationsonline.org.uk/evaluations/Browse.do?ui=browse&actio
n=show&id=395&taxonomy=ENT
60http://enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/default/assets//File/ERC White
Paper%20No_5%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
42
Scottish Development International
61
is committed to supporting
and working with any Scottish business that wants to trade
internationally, including through the Smart Exporter programme
62
which supports companies exporting for the ?rst time.
The GlobalScot
63
network also offers signi?cant opportunity to
help businesses access experienced individuals who can help them
to reach new customers and understand the dynamics in new
markets and we will explore this further. The Power of Youth
64
initiative has also been developing its network and capabilities
through support from the Scottish Government and the Royal Bank
of Scotland in order to create opportunities for growing Scottish
companies of international scope.
61http://www.sdi.co.uk/
62http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/services/do-business-outside-scotland
63https://www.sdi.co.uk/globalscot.aspx
64http://power-of-youth.org/
Priorities moving forward:
A greater focus on how customers, public and private,
can in?uence entrepreneurship and innovation, including
through innovative procurement.
Working with the Scottish Science Advisory Council to
ensure Scotland’s scienti?c excellence can fully drive
innovation opportunities.
Working with the Technology Strategy Board to identify
opportunities where Scottish organisations can collaborate
or compete for funding.
Assessing the potential for additional support for sales and
marketing skills.
A continued focus on exports and support for
entrepreneurial and innovative business to internationalise.
CHANNELLING CHANGE
AND NEXT STEPS
43
Our success in driving these priorities forward for Scotland and
making Scotland a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative
nation will depend on how our public, private, and third sectors
work together.
Next steps include:
Preparing a Team Scotland action plan to further develop the
priorities in this framework over the period 2014-15 and
2015-16 involving public, private and third sectors and
including identi?cation of available resources.
Producing a communications plan to support implementation
of the priorities contained in this framework and the Team
Scotland action plan. This will include working with partners to
develop an all-Scotland calendar of events and communication
opportunities over the next three years.
Arranging annual Ministerial Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Summits in 2014, 2015 and 2016 that will bring together all
partners to review progress, implementation of actions and the
outcomes being achieved.
Involving the Industry Leadership Groups (ILGs) in
monitoring and challenging the progress made in promoting
entrepreneurship and innovation within their sectors.
Providing regular online updates of case studies and good
practice examples.
Development of a performance monitoring tool which will help
to align activities across Team Scotland to achieve the greatest
impact. This will include benchmarking where we are now in
relation to entrepreneurship and innovation performance.
CONCLUSION
44
This framework document sets out the importance the Scottish
Government places on entrepreneurship and innovation as a key
way of accelerating sustainable economic growth. It has also
highlighted the areas we consider are future priorities for action to
make Scotland a CAN DO place – a world–leading entrepreneurial
and innovative nation.
In moving forward, working together will be key and we welcome
any comments on this framework. In particular, we welcome your
views on what you can do to increase Scotland’s competitiveness
and economic growth through increased entrepreneurship and
innovation. How can we work with you to achieve a better
Scotland – to make Scotland a CAN DO nation?
Please contact us at: [email protected]
#scotlandcando
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The Scottish Government
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DPPAS14979 (11/13)
Published by the Scottish Government, November 2013
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