Unlocking economic innovation

The Scottish Government is investing nearly £3 million to help turn university research projects into commercial business propositions.

Seventeen projects from seven different universities will share £2.92 million of funding from the Proof of Concept fund, which was piloted last year to help researchers explore and realise the commercial potential of their research.

The funding will help accelerate various aspects of the spinout process, from developing prototype products to undertaken market analysis and pitching to investors.

Projects being funded this year include:

• Kinera at Heriot Watt University, which is developing a wearable health monitoring device for people with Parkinson’s disease to help clinicians make more personalised treatment decisions
• Merra-log at the University of St Andrews, which is developing a low-cost environmental monitoring system to collect and transmit high-quality marine and freshwater data in near real time
• Scensai at the University of Aberdeen, which is developing an affordable handheld chemical sensing device for the drinks industry

Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism & Transport Stephen Flynn said:

“The Scottish Government has now invested nearly £6 million over the last two years to realise the economic potential of more Scottish spinout companies starting and succeeding.

“Scotland’s universities have been the birthplace of some of the world’s greatest ideas and inventions for centuries – ideas and inventions which have improved lives and solved problems across the world – and it is vital this innovation continues to be nurtured.”

“The support of the Scottish Government is helping us take an important step towards improving the diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal disorders. This funding will enable us to advance a technology with the potential to provide earlier answers for patients and more targeted treatment pathways.”

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have been awarded £124,000 to develop a simple lateral-flow test for chronic gastrointestinal disorders. The funding will develop and validate prototype tests for potential use in primary care settings. The project’s lead Professor Jenna Gregory said:

“The support of the Scottish Government is helping us take an important step towards improving the diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal disorders, which affect millions of people and place a substantial burden on patients and healthcare services.

“This funding will enable us to advance a promising technology, bringing us closer to a practical test that could be used in primary care. By supporting the development of this innovative diagnostic tool, the Scottish Government is helping to accelerate research with the potential to provide earlier answers for patients, reduce unnecessary investigations, improve disease stratification, and pave the way for more targeted and effective treatments.”

The Critical Technologies Accelerator at the University of Glasgow received £125,000 of funding in 2025-26 to develop a groundbreaking new coupler design for silicon-photonic microchips. Research Fellow Andrew Greer said:

“The Scottish Government Proof of Concept award was an excellent platform to enable impact from innovation by supporting a means to transition the ‘valley of death’ for scientific research that falls between raw academic science and industrial applications.

“It has been transformative for the science and the people involved by validating both the technology and the team credentials. Since receiving the award we have doubled our grant income, successfully developed a foundry scale-up process and the team are now delivering demonstrators and working with commercialisation partner STL Tech towards an invitational application to the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spinout Programme.”

Background

A full list of projects awarded 2026-27 Proof of Concept funding is available on the Scottish Government website.

The Proof of Concept fund was piloted in 2025-26, with 18 projects sharing £2.95 million of Scottish Government funding.