Scotland 5G Centre (S5GC): evaluation

The S5GC

2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the trajectory of the S5GC and the activities that it delivered. It is based on background documentation provided by the Scottish Government, including the original proposals for the S5GC, business plans produced at different stages and annual reports.

It is not intended to be a comprehensive account of all that the S5GC delivered but rather provides context for the evaluation findings reported in the following sections. It is also worth noting that the S5GC’s programme of activity is described in three broad phases, but in reality, these overlapped considerably and a clear timeline was not always easy to discern from the available documentation.

2.2 Set Up

2.2.1 Initial Proposal and Set Up

Following the publication of the Scottish Government 5G Strategy, a partnership of the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde and the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) approached the Scottish Government with a proposal for a S5GC.

The proposal drew on previous work, including market assessments by the Digital Catapult (2018) and Deloitte (2019) and a feasibility study (Oxida, 2019), and was centred on the premise that while Scotland had a strong academic presence in 5G research, relationships to industry were less well developed than elsewhere in the UK. This, it was argued, threatened to limit the economic potential offered by 5G and related communications technologies.

Both universities already had active research programmes in 5G and the idea was that a S5GC would utilise the facilities and assets of the universities to develop use cases and industry engagement, and the expertise of SFT to develop industry ready projects.

Building on the feasibility study, the proposal was for a Centre of Excellence to cover three distinct but inter-related elements of 5G deployment in Scotland, including:

• Development - the research and development expertise of the universities working with other partners to develop:
• ‘use case’ projects - commercialisation of known opportunities where 5G offered operational benefits.
• ‘user cases’ projects - operational aims or challenges that required an understanding of the role 5G could potentially play in overcoming problems and understanding benefits 5G could bring to existing project aims.
• Enabling – helping to create the conditions in local authorities, the public sector and across Scotland to smooth the deployment of 5G. This was intended to focus on knowledge exchange, policy advice and deployment of best practice to accelerate Scotland’s ability to exploit the potential of 5G.
• Exportation – ‘use cases’ and ‘user cases’ successfully tried and tested in a research environment could then be developed into real world applications.

Following initial approval and a period of negotiation and business case development, proposals for the S5GC took shape, and set out a vision for S5GC as follows:

“To be Scotland’s national platform for collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing across all aspects of 5G from research to delivery and exploitation.”

This was supported by missions and objectives, as set out in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: S5GC – mission and objectives (2019)

Mission

Permanence

Objectives

• Support existing, funded projects, developments and industries.
• Demonstrate attraction of inward investment, additional funding and projects
• Promote the acquisition, development and retention of specialist high value talent
• Providing support to enabling innovation addressing Scotland’s connectivity needs

Mission

Scottish Focus

Objectives

• Support Scotland’s “outside in” approach to delivering ubiquitous connectivity
• Supporting use cases reflecting Scotland’s key sectors, industries and challenges
• Exploiting Scotland’s specific 5G areas of research and expertise
• Ensure security is at the heart of emerging mobile connectivity deployments

Mission

Knowledge Exchange

Objectives

• Identifying and disseminating best practice in procurement and deployment of technologies
• Support of efficient access to and utilisation of public sector assets
• Development, deployment and commercialisation of 5G use cases

Mission

Promotion

Objectives

• Inward investment and SME growth
• Ensure Scotland’s expertise and success is visible and exported internationally
• Support scalable commercialisation of 5G services across Scotland

At this stage the Scottish Government committed initial funding of £5.3 million and the S5GC began to develop its programme of activity. The first Business Plan for the S5GC was produced in April 2020 and set out a framework for the first two years of operation (April 2020 to March 2022).

The proposal was for the S5GC to be hosted at the university of Strathclyde, making use of its existing back office systems and support. As discussed later, while this was in many ways a convenient and appropriate model, it did have some unintended consequences.

2.3 First Phase of Operation

2.3.1 Context

As noted above, the focus of the S5GC was on accelerating the deployment and adoption of 5G connectivity across industry and the public sector. It was not focused on public adoption of 5G mobile connectivity.

The first phase of the S5GC’s operation built on research programmes within the partners universities and in particular around three Wave 1 projects. These were considered critical to the Business Plan, with the research outcomes, and the supply chain participation generated through the projects, providing the main focus for the S5GC’s operations in the first two years.

The 2020 Business Plan^[5] identified three areas of operational focus – delivery, promotion, and leadership. These were described as follows:

1. Delivery – the delivery of Wave 1 projects, and the delivery of further milestones tracking the ongoing development of S5GC in line with its wider ambitions. To demonstrate best practice by using the Scottish Government 5G project frameworks.

2. Promotion – to showcase Wave 1 project outcomes through events, engagement and media opportunities with capacity to attract further participants reflecting the thematic focus as presented to Ministers in the original brief of May 2019. Further promotion of the opportunities created for additional partners through the S5GC’s activities, for example, test beds and/or use cases. To support other 5G activity in Scotland by providing a national platform for the innovation and collaboration, and which could result in additional investment, collaborators, and activity.

3. Leadership – to grow the reach and reputation of S5GC, the 5G ecosystem it represents and the capacity and capability of Scotland’s 5G community. To lead the attraction of further investment in Scotland’s 5G activities.

2.3.2 Wave 1 Projects

There were three Wave 1 Projects, as follows.

Rural Project

The university of Strathclyde’s S5GC Rural Project established a rural 5G “field lab” to test, demonstrate and evaluate new technologies, supported by £1.9 million of S5GC funding and further investment from industry and government. The project delivered significant innovations, including the 5G New Thinking Toolkit to help communities improve connectivity, the creation of a 5G rural environment in Orkney using shared spectrum models, and the demonstration of affordable alternative 5G equipment capable of operating both as private networks and integrated with commercial providers.

It supported two spin-out companies (Neutral Wireless and Rural First), retained and created jobs, and developed a 5G standalone software-defined radio with early international pre-sales. The project also showcased 5G broadcasting at major cultural and sporting events across the UK, Europe, and beyond, while building a knowledge base on neutral hosting and inbound roaming. By establishing a 5G community interest group and promoting cooperative rural network models, the project positioned the university as a leader in rural 5G innovation with strong international impact.

University of Glasgow 5G Urban Innovation District

The university of Glasgow established an urban 5G test bed in Glasgow (at its campus) to help establish a world-class innovation district in Glasgow and deliver a 5G-enabled Smart Campus, as an urban research laboratory for 5G. The project received investment from the S5GC of £1.6 million and secured a further £29 million of investment from the UK Government and industry.

The project supported 13 academic publications as well as eight jobs and four use cases. It also established two Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) projects (knowledge transfer from university to industry) and 14 new studentships (attracting and upskilling new talent in Scotland).

The Glasgow test bed was a key factor in helping the university attract £2.6 million of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding to build a world-leading facility to test 6G communications systems. The facility was the first of its kind to comprehensively test prototype devices’ ability to process the complex signals and waveforms that underpinned 6G communications.

Critically the outputs included a range of new 5G applications, that the S5GC used to demonstrate 5G’s potential and found opportunities for use across Scotland, to support organisation and communities. Outputs included the following:

• a compact and low-powered self-organising small cell network for 5G provision in remote locations, for disaster management and to provide temporary coverage in crowded events.
• a fully equipped state-of-the-art mobile clinic on wheels supported by a pop-up 5G mobile private network, that enabled remote testing, consultation, video diagnostics, monitoring and other care capabilities necessary for a team of trained professionals to carry out their duties from a secure central location.
• real-time control of a robotic arm through 5G’s low-latency and high-reliability.
• the team (in collaboration with Oxford Robotics) implemented the remote driving of an Unmanned Guided Vehicle (UGV) between Oxford and a UGV in Glasgow connected to the G5G network.
• the design and development (with BT and VTRuoso) of a 5G and VR solution for low-cost remote teaching/training.

Infralink Project

The S5GC’s Infralink Project, led by the SFT, was created to tackle 5G coverage gaps by simplifying and speeding up negotiations between public sector landlords and mobile industry tenants. Backed by £400,000 of S5GC funding and £500,000 of additional investment from the UK Government (DCMS), the project produced an online toolkit freely available to all, containing standard lease and wayleave templates, framework agreements, payment guidance, and advice for local authorities.

A dedicated website provided access to these resources, making rollout processes more consistent and efficient. Building on this, the team developed the Connectivity Marketplace, a database of public sector-owned infrastructure in the Tayside region, enabling mobile operators to identify suitable sites for installing both macro and small cell transmitters. By removing barriers to deployment and fostering collaboration, the Infralink programme helped to accelerate Scotland’s 5G rollout and strengthen national connectivity.

Infralink was not within the scope of this current evaluation.

Governance

During this period the S5GC Board largely comprised representatives from the three founding partners with an independent chair appointed in 2020. The S5GC was managed by a small interim team in 2019 before the appointment of a CEO in 2020.

2.4 Second Phase

2.4.1 5G Connect Hubs

Following direction from the Scottish Government, and the then CEO, the S5GC moved more explicitly towards SME engagement and initiated the 5G Connect Hubs programme. The aim was to establish a national 5G testbed infrastructure made up of regional hubs.

The programme was supported with £4 million from the Scottish Government and led to the establishment of seven hubs: Dumfries, Aberdeen, Dundee, Kilmarnock, Inverness, Forth Valley, and Renfrew. The S5GC also procured two ‘pop-up’ hubs for mobile deployment.

The purpose of the hubs was to provide industry and public sector organisations with access to 5G networks for use as testbeds for the application of 5G technologies. They were also intended to provide a ‘shopfront’ for 5G and a means of engaging more businesses to encourage adoption of 5G across the economy. The S5GC recruited five Business Engagement Managers (BEMs) to manage the hubs and established a technical team to support hub development. Each hub was also supported by business partners including Vodafone, AT&T, BT and Jacobs, and the S5GC engaged external consultancy support to supplement its own in-house technical team.

2.4.2 Four Activity Pillars

In the 2022 Business Plan^[6], the S5GC set out its activities around four key pillars, including:

• Coverage – enabling the development of new mobile solutions to improve coverage.
• 5G support – supporting organisations procure and deploy 5G networks.
• Engagement – demonstrating the value.
• Innovation – supporting innovation and access.

Coverage

The first action pillar was focussed on enabling the deployment of new mobile solutions to improve 5G coverage, and as such built on the outputs of the Wave 1 research projects.

These included the 5G New Rural Thinking Toolkit which provided a practical guide for rural and poorly connected communities which were considering developing and operating their own networks. It also included the 5G in a Box system that allowed ultra-fast, high data, low latency mobile connectivity in remote locations, and applied in broadcasting live events.

5G Support

The second action pillar was largely focussed on providing organisations with advice and support to procure and deploy 5G networks. The S5GC provided support of varying kinds to a range of organisations, including Opportunity North East, Scottish Rural College, Crichton Centre, Forth Valley College, BE-ST, National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland, the National Robotarium and the Digital Health and Care Institute.

Engagement

The main focus under pillar three was the establishment of the 5G Connect Hubs and the outreach work of the S5GC’s BEMs in engaging partners in a wide range of projects and use cases. This also included the 5G Innovation Challenge and the Tay 5G Project, both of which established challenge funds for applicants to access funding for 5G projects. At the same time S5GC undertook awareness raising activities including its own events, involvement in events held by partners, and online and social media promotional activities.

Innovation

In the Innovation Pillar the S5GC provided advice, support, and access to test facilities to enable innovation and access to investment. The S5GC helped to access additional investment by providing support to a range of funding bids, often as part of wider consortia, as a means both of attracting innovation investment into Scotland and leveraging funding into the S5GC itself. This included funding from the UK Government via DCMS, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The S5GC’s involvement ranged from providing advice and input to funding bids to leading and managing funded projects.

Management and Governance

During this period the S5GC grew, creating 21 jobs^[7], and in 2022, it appointed two new non-Executive Directors to the Board both of whom brought relevant private sector experience to the S5GC.

Around this time, having already committed the initial £5.3 million in funding and a further £4 million to the 5G Connect Hubs programme, the Scottish Government moved its core funding support for the S5GC onto annual agreements.

2.5 Final Phase

Towards the end of 2022, the CEO left and was subsequently replaced in December 2022 by an interim CEO with significant experience of managing innovation agencies. This was a short term appointment (six months). Subsequent to this, the then Chair was required to take a more hands on role, alongside the management team, until the closure of the S5GC.

The Business Case for a funding extension for 2023-2024 secured further grant support from the Scottish Government, with a final year’s funding also provided to March 2025.

During this period, Scottish Government’s core funding for the S5GC began to reduce, leading to a reduction in staff numbers. Recruitment was also reported to be difficult due to short term funding agreements.

The last annual report, covering the period 2024-2025, reported a reduction in staff from 15 to eight in March 2024, most of which were BEMs. This necessitated a refocus of the S5GC’s activities and rationalisation of its asset base of 5G networks across Scotland. During this final year, the S5GC continued to deliver funding programmes, many of which were UK funded (DSIT, Innovate UK).

These included:

• Tay 5G Programme (City Deal funded).
• Ayrshire 5GIR (DSIT).
• Borderlands 5GIR (DSIT).
• Du-Vo (ORAN project) (DSIT).
• Aberdeen Innovation Challenge (City Deal).
• SCONDA (DSIT).
• TMF (Innovate UK).

During this period the S5GC was tasked with completing its previous activities with organisations who had engaged with the BEM/hubs model as well as supporting new opportunities. It also hosted international delegations to Scotland to promote 5G capabilities.

Scottish Government funding to the S5GC effectively ended in March 2025, albeit with a small underspend which supported two final staff posts until October 2025 until the final closure of the S5GC.

2.6 Funding

The following sub-section provides a concise summary of the S5GC’s Scottish Government funding from its inception in Quarter 4 of 2019, to its closure in 2025. It summarises the total grant awarded, expenditure trends, grant uplifts, and the S5GC’s role in leveraging external funding.

It should be noted that this analysis is based on invoices submitted by the S5GC to the Scottish Government. The invoices used different categories of expenditure over time, making consistent analysis of the use of financial resources difficult. They also did not take account of funding into the S5GC that was not Scottish Government funding nor how such monies were used. This certainly suggests there could have been scope to improve the financial reporting from the S5GC to the Scottish Government.

2.6.1 S5GC - Grant Award

The S5GC initially received a grant award from the Scottish Government of £5.3 million, covering the period of October 2019 to March 2022. However, the £5.3 million was largely spent by March 2021, which led to an agreed increase. As delivery accelerated and expenditure increased, additional grant uplifts were approved by the Scottish Government.

The timeline below summarises these changes, see Table 2.2.

Table 2.2: Grant agreed – uplift timeline

Total cumulative grant agreed	S5GC quarter	Time period
£5.3m	Q01	1st Oct – 31st Dec 2019
£10.34m	Q09	1st Oct – 31st Dec 2021
£11.6m	Q12	1st Jul – 30th Sep 2022
£14.5m	Q15	1st Apr – 30th Jun 2023
£15.4m	Q18	1st Jan – 31st Mar 2024

Source: Scottish Government – S5GC Invoice Data (2020-2025)

2.6.2 Expenditure

In total, the S5GC was awarded £15,371,000 in grant funding from the Scottish Government, of which £15,311,823 had been spent by the final invoicing period ending 31March 2025.

Figure 2.1 below sets out the S5GC’s expenditure from October 2019 to March 2025, which is based on quarterly invoices received by the Scottish Government.

It should be noted that invoices were not received for Q07 and Q08 (April-September 2021) or Q13 (October-December 2022), which was for practical accounting reasons as requested by the university of Strathclyde. Invoices were issued up until March 2025, after which no further funding for the S5GC was provided by the Scottish Government.

Source: Scottish Government – S5GC Invoice Data (2020-2025)

2.6.3 2019 and 2020

The S5GC’s first tranche of funding came during the period of October–December 2019 (Q01) with expenditure of £254,271, followed by a sharp rise in Q02 (January–March 2020) taking expenditure to £2.03 million as Wave 1 development and testbed activity began.

Spending then remained relatively low and steady through the rest of 2020 (Q03–Q05), between roughly £334,000 and £443,000 per quarter. This lessened S5GC activity coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely limited the ability of many projects to begin or operate as anticipated.

2.6.4 2021

In Q06 (January–March 2021), spending increased significantly, with £1.57 million invoiced. This was followed by two quarters with no invoices submitted (Q07–Q08, covering April–September 2021). When invoicing resumed in Q09 (October–December 2021), the total was £586,185 - much lower than the levels seen immediately before the invoicing gap.

2.6.5 2022

A major increase in spending then appeared at the start of 2022. Q10 (January to March 2022) shows expenditure of £3.78 million, the largest single quarterly period of spend for the S5GC. Expenditure then reduced again in Q11 and Q12, which shows totals of £429,240 and £882,505 respectively. No invoices were submitted in the following quarter (Q13).

2.6.6 2023

Spending remained relatively steady, with Q14 to Q17 showing quarterly spend totals ranging from approximately £390,000 to £560,000.

2.6.7 2024

Spending was a little lower in 2024, with total spending in the year circa £1,570,000, with quarterly spend ranging from circa £250,000 to £870,000.

2.6.8 2025

Spending in 2025 was £376,155, which covered the period of 1 January to 31March 2025, after which no further invoices were received.

Table 2.3 below summarises the total spend per year by the S5GC.

Table 2.3: S5GC – spend by year

Year	Total expenditure (£)	Cumulative expenditure at year-end (£)
2019	254,271	254,271
2020	3,218,458	3,472,728
2021	2,160,706	5,633,434
2022	5,094,639	10,728,073
2023	2,289,227	13,017,300
2024	1,918,368	14,935,668
2025	376,155	15,311,823

Source: Scottish Government – S5GC Invoice Data (2020-2025)

2.6.9 Grant Agreed

At the outset of the S5GC, the agreed grant for the S5GC was £5.3 million. Spending reached this level in mid–late 2021, prompting an increase in the approved grant to circa £10.3 million.

This revised allocation was fully spent by mid-2022, after which the grant was raised again to approximately £11.6 million. That threshold was reached in Q2 2023, leading to a further uplift to roughly £14.5 million. This allocation was spent by Q2 2024, at which point the grant was subsequently reprofiled to circa £15.4 million, with final spending coming in at £15,311,823.

Figure 2.2 below sets out the level of grant agreed at each time point, alongside cumulative spend. The blue lines note the grant agreed and the period it covered, with the orange line covering the proportion of the grant agreed that was spent.

2.6.10 Programme-level Expenditure

Wave 1 – Expenditure

Total expenditure for the S5GC’s Wave 1 programme from the Scottish Government amounted to £1,516,692.67.^[8] Funding was allocated across several quarters between the launch of the programme and completion of the Wave 1 activities. Spend peaked in the early stages of delivery, reflecting the upfront investment required to establish testbeds, procure equipment, and mobilise the project teams.

Quarterly Wave 1 expenditure was as follows, see Table 2.4.

Table 2.4: Wave 1 projects expenditure

Quarter	Claim period	Expenditure
Q01	1st Oct – 31st Dec 2019	£177,512.11
Q02	1st Jan – 31st Mar 2020	£233,816.55
Q03	1st Apr – 30th Jun 2020	£282,766.04
Q04	1st Jul – 30th Sep 2020	£127,404.07
Q05	1st Oct – 31st Dec 2020	£280,659.46
Q06	1st Jan – 31st Mar 2021	£103,469.13
Q10	1st Jan – 31st Mar 2022	£57,771.31
Q12	1st Jul – 30th Sep 2022	£60,621.59
Q14	1st Jan – 31st Mar 2023	£192,672.41
Wave 1 Projects	Total Expenditure	£1,516,692.67

Source: Scottish Government – S5GC Invoice Data (2020-2025)

The expenditure profile shows two periods of higher spending - Q02–Q05 and Q14 - likely linked to key delivery phases across the Wave 1 portfolio. These investments supported the establishment of major testbed infrastructure and the development of new 5G applications.

Externally Funded S5GC Programmes

The S5GC was involved in several externally funded projects that ended in the financial year 2024/2025, and which involved collaboration with key partners, and leveraged funding from UK Government sources like the DSIT as well as Innovate UK, noted in Table 2.5.

Table 2.5: Externally funded/leveraged funding

Project	Funder	Total value	description
Du-Vo	DSIT	£11.0m	To develop the next generation of ORAN technology (distributed unit)
Ayrshire 5GIR	DSIT	£3.7m	To position Ayrshire as a leader in digital manufacturing/transformation
Tay 5G Programme	City and Region Deal	£2.0m	Tay 5G Innovation Challenge
TMF	Innovate UK	£0.5m	Develop the S5GC’s mobile capability and provide support to enable uptake of 5G
Borderlands 5GIR	DSIT	£3.8m	Deployment of 5G enabled technology on a number of tourist sites
SCONDA	DSIT	£9.1m	Development of a new Open RAN Small Cells solution in Glasgow
Aberdeen Innovation Challenge	City and Region Deal	£0.3m	ONE 5G Innovation Challenge

Source: S5GC – Annual Report 2024-2025.