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

Progress

The Scottish Government and its agencies have supported and will continue to support the translation of world leading research by supporting our strongest assets within the system. Over the past year, Scotland’s public sector has significantly strengthened its support for research commercialisation, investing in targeted programmes to bridge the gap between discovery and market impact and starting to make progress in alleviating the aforementioned barriers to successful commercialisation at scale.

Research and Innovation funding

To provide underpinning capacity building support, the Scottish Government through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) provides core Research and Innovation funding to support world-leading research and the exchange of knowledge between universities and the wider world to benefit society and the economy. For 2025-26 this was increased to £328.5 million to maintain and strengthen Scotland’s excellent research base, which includes £25 million for the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund (KEIF) to drive university knowledge exchange and innovation in universities. In addition, we also continue to fund a portfolio of knowledge exchange and innovation investments, including the Innovation Centres, Interface and Converge.

There has been a lack of translational research funding in Scotland, specifically Proof of Concept funding, a form of translational funding for early to mid-stage commercialisation activities to de risk new technologies. To begin to address this, another new initiative in 2025 included the Scottish Government’s £2.9 million Proof of Concept Fund for early to mid-stage commercialisation activities, helping researchers to develop prototypes, de-risk new technologies and attract early-stage investment.

Spinout Pipeline Development

The Scottish Government has committed up to £7 million for a dedicated impact venture spinout pipeline to ensure that we are enabling impact ventures to navigate the complex startup and scaleup path. By supporting the expanding work of The Venture Labs beyond social impact ventures to all purpose-driven companies, including those spinning out of universities, founders will be further supported to develop critical skills, build high-performing teams and strengthen their management capabilities, providing mentoring and ensuring they are equipped to scale effectively and sustainably through a number of interventions such as skills audits, talent acquisition and access to industry mentors.

The Scottish Government also piloted an £800,000 Spinout Pipeline Project, by a consortia of universities to support high-growth ventures nationally. This pilot is expanding pathways from lab to launch, improving national access to technology transfer support on a more equitable basis, and improving access to experienced C-suite business and sales skills support for researchers and spinout founders. The project is culminating in Scotland’s inaugural Spinout Summit – a national investor showcase for this expanding pipeline of high-growth potential ventures in February 2026 – and delivering a comprehensive mapping report of Scotland’s nascent and current spinout pipeline to inform future policy development.

Scotland’s national programme Techscaler, delivered by CodeBase, aims to create, develop and scale tech startups. It provides founders with tailored education, mentorship, investment access and supportive community infrastructure. In 2025, Techscaler focused on strengthening the pathway from postgraduate research to venture ready innovation, recognising that academic excellence alone does not guarantee scalable commercial outcomes. Rather than expecting researchers to become founders by default, Techscaler introduced earlier, targeted commercial input bringing operators and investors into the process at the right stage. This reduced friction between discovery and delivery, giving researchers a clearer insight into market potential and creating more consistent routes to real world impact. This work was delivered through two complementary programmes: the AI Discovery pilot, which tested a rapid, applied route from research to venture creation, and an enhanced partnership with the Venture Builder Incubator, which expanded structured commercialisation support across all Scottish universities.

Partnerships and Collaboration

Collaboration has been boosted through shared services pilots across multiple universities using the Scottish Funding Council’s shared services collaboration fund and Scottish Government pipeline funding to build shared technology commercialisation infrastructure across clusters of universities to improve their pathways, efficiency and reach. Two projects receiving funding this year are directly addressing capacity and access to expertise challenges in shared technology transfer services within universities, a key barrier in the commercialisation journey and a third tackling barriers within small, modern and specialist institutions where standard commercialisation models are not applicable.

Support for entrepreneurial talent has been enhanced through SFC’s multi-year funding for the Converge programme of £1.26 million, matched by our universities and now in strategic partnership with Scottish Enterprise, strengthening spinout founder training and business support nationwide.

Dedicated Spinout Support

At the later stages of the commercialisation journey, Scotland’s national enterprise agency, Scottish Enterprise, undertakes significant work to harness Scotland’s academic excellence and entrepreneurial capacity. This includes its High Growth SpinOut Programme (HGSP), which accelerates the translation of research into high impact, scalable, globally competitive businesses capable of attracting international investment. In addition to HGSP, successful spinouts may also access additional means of support from Scottish Enterprise.

Infrastructure

Scotland is investing to strengthen the pathway to growth from early-stage enterprises. Investing in infrastructure for spinouts and startups to grow into is vital. Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy highlights the vital role Innovation Districts in Glasgow, Edinburgh and other regions play in driving commercialisation activities and in providing vital accommodation for early-stage enterprises. Recent investments, such as Dundee’s £40 million Life Sciences Innovation Hub and Aberdeen’s £40 million ONE BioHub, demonstrate a commitment across Scotland’s regions to accelerate the commercial translation of research and create high-value jobs.

Diversity

Scotland is full of innovative minds that have the power to drive Scotland’s economy forward, but two of our most innovative groups in society are underrepresented in the wider more established business base: spinout founders and female entrepreneurs.

In recognition of persistent gender imbalances in Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem – where only 4.5% of spinouts have female founders, and institutional investment favours male-led teams – the public sector and universities have prioritised to improve diversity and inclusion. Scotland’s Pathways Pledge commits partners to improving data on female entrepreneurs, hosting dedicated EDI events, and embedding equity into commercialisation activities. The pledge has been adopted by the Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, as well as ecosystem supporters Converge, Scottish Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, with all partners increasing targeted events, networks and investment-readiness support for women in innovation.