Ideas to impact public sector support for research commercialisation: strengths, ambition and progress report

Chief Entrepreneur Foreword

I have spent much of my career starting and scaling and investing in businesses across Scotland, and one thing is consistently clear: we are not short of ideas, talent or ambition. Our universities are our innovation engines which generate extraordinary research and produce people with the capability to build globally significant companies. What we have too often lacked is a unified public sector system that backs those people – for the long term.

That is why this report matters. Research commercialisation is not a linear or low-risk journey. It requires patient capital, coordinated support and confidence to invest early, before markets are proven and developed. Governments have the ability to take a long-term view, to reduce risk where the market alone will not, and to bring partners together around a shared central mission.

One of my priorities as Chief Entrepreneur is to support the development of a well designed commercially focussed Scottish Innovation Fund – enabling companies to scale in Scotland, and ensuring that value created from publicly funded research benefits the public in return. It is a powerful signal that Scotland is prepared to act ambitiously and at scale, using public investment to unlock private capital and long-term economic value.

Scaling successful companies also requires more than finance. It demands access to experienced leadership, international networks, early customers and supportive regulation. The public sector can play a catalytic role here too – as a convenor, a primary customer, and a long-term partner to growing businesses.

This report celebrates Scotland’s growing strengths in research commercialisation activity and the increasingly vibrant ecosystem supporting the translation of research into new spinout companies, products and services, whilst being clear about how much more we have to do. Over the next year, we will move decisively from strategy into delivery – implementing new plans, deploying new funds, and sharpening our focus on spinout and scale-up growth.

Just as importantly, we will be accountable for results. We will monitor progress against a clear set of metrics that show the health of Scotland’s spinout pipeline, its ability to attract follow-on investment, and a broadening diversity of founding teams and supports – and the extent to which these companies grow and scale in Scotland.

Scotland has all the ingredients it needs. By backing research commercialisation properly, and by supporting spinouts to scale, we can build a stronger, fairer and more ambitious innovation-driven economy for the future.