The latest round of the Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund (IICF) has awarded three projects up to £10,000 each. The fund, supported by Interface and the Scottish Government, attracts investment through R&D with Scottish universities.

The projects awarded are:

Development of a lithium titanate oxide battery by Titanvolt and University of St Andrews. The pouch cell battery, which has no fire risk, is more energy efficient and 95% recyclable, has been produced by Grinergy, a leading South Korean battery manufacturer and brought to the market by North East England based Titanvolt. While the technology has gone through extensive testing. they will test and validate for the UK market and support product development with the intention to develop battery manufacturing facilities in Scotland in the future.

Australian healthtech company Oraid Solutions is working with the University of Strathclyde to develop a low-powered, high-frequency microphone for hearing aids to improve sound clarity and speech recognition in noisy environments. This innovation doubles frequency capture, minimises battery use, and enhances noise cancelling capabilities.

Masterisk Ltd, a software company based in England, has developed RASBOX, a risk quantification solution to help financial services organisations quantify and manage their non-financial risk exposures. The collaboration with the University of Strathclyde will involve research and development into risk modelling to develop the product’s capability of processing risk data into valuable business information.

The fund, set up by Interface and the Scottish Government attracts companies from out with Scotland to collaborate with Scottish academics, creating opportunities and growing the economy.  To date, the fund has awarded 34 projects up to £10k in opportunity areas for Scotland such as energy transition, health tech and decarbonisation of transport.

Business Minister, Richard Lochhead, said: “Attracting inward investment drives economic growth and prosperity across Scotland. The Inward Investment Catalyst Fund helps build early-stage partnerships between potential investors and Scotland’s world-renowned academia to develop these opportunities.

“The fund is supporting high quality and innovative projects and laying strong foundations to help potential investors consider Scotland as a destination for their business.”

Howell Davies, Interface’s Head of Strategic Programmes and Funding, added: “The specific nature of the projects being funded through the Inward Investment Catalyst Fund demonstrate the strength and depth we have in a range of academic disciplines, where Scotland is seen as a destination to access facilities and expertise and is a key factor when considering inward investment here.”

Pictured above, Business Minister Richard Lochhead. Video below shows the Colin Vincent Centre for Battery Technology at University of St Andrews, the collaboration partner of Titanvolt.