About Us
Accelerating innovation through business–academic partnerships.
Get to know us
We bring together Scotland’s business and academic communities to accelerate innovation by building strong, collaborative partnerships.
Our impartial, free service helps both businesses and academic partners form the right collaborations quickly and effectively, saving time and money.
With national reach and active engagement across all of Scotland’s universities, colleges and research institutes, we connect knowledge, expertise, facilities and funding to unlock real-world solutions across all sectors and regions.
We also manage collaborative funding programmes that de-risks early-stage engagement and makes partnerships more accessible particularly for SMEs and academic teams building new relationships.
We have supported thousands of businesses in solving challenges, building capability, and driving inclusive, sustainable growth, while helping academic partners generate research impact, enrich teaching, engage students, and create tangible value.
In addition to supporting individual collaborations, we play a unique enabling role in Scotland’s innovation ecosystem by building diverse, cross-sector partnerships, strengthening regional innovation, and contributing to national priorities.
Interface are funded by the Scottish Funding Council and hosted by Edinburgh Innovations Ltd.
Contact UsInterface at 20
Explore 20 years of innovation through business-academic partnerships.
Interface at 20Facts & Figures
With established links to thousands of world-class leading experts, Interface finds and introduces companies to the perfect academic partner.
Key Stats Aug 2025
Annual Impact
During the 2022/2023 period we’ve brokered collaborations to create and protect jobs, deliver new products, processes and services, and increase turnover, profits and productivity for organisations. However, there’s more to the Interface story, read now.