The Highlands and Islands of Scotland has a fascinating story to tell its visitors, and four projects rich in heritage are being brought bang up to date with help from Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
Rural life in Carloway; the Calanais Standing Stones, (both in the Outer Hebrides); the Highlanders’ Museum collection and the history of illicit whisky in Speyside are all the subject of digital projects being supported as the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology draws to a close. Working with latest technology each will open up new ways for visitors to experience history.
The Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust; The Highlanders Museum; The Carloway Community Association; and the Calanais Visitor Centre have each secured £25,000 from HIE’s 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology Digital Adoption Scheme. Three of the groups are accessing expert academic support through Interface, which connects businesses and organisations with 23 of Scotland’s higher education and research institutes.
Glasgow Caledonian University and St Andrews University will bring their expertise in the field of digital heritage to help develop some fantastic cutting edge digital projects.
The technology rich projects include digitisation of the Highlanders’ Museum’s complete collection and archives; cutting edge digital 3d modelling and virtual reality technology at Calanais; bringing a digital aspect to the Carloway Rural Life Centre which will allow visitors to be immersed in the past through Virtual Reality; and re-creating what life was like in the whisky industry of the past at the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre. (See below for more details on each project).
“There are some amazing new technologies available to businesses and groups working in the heritage sector which can really bring our historic sites, collections and attractions to life. We’re delighted to support these four groups with their plans to learn about using these in practice, and helping them create interactive visitor friendly products,” said Ann Marie Reid of HIE.
Rhiannon Merritt, Business Engagement Executive at Interface, said:
“We were delighted to be involved in supporting these incredibly varied digital projects which bring fresh and exciting developments to each of the organisations.
“Academic expertise can add new knowledge to some of Scotland’s most ancient treasures such as the Calanais Standing Stones and traditional industries including whisky production by tapping into a range of disciplines and technology in Scotland’s universities.”
Calanais Visitor Centre: The Calanais Standing Stones are regarded as a hugely important cultural asset to the local heritage sector. The arrangement of standing stones is placed in a cruciform pattern with a central stone circle, dating back to the Hebridean Neolithic historical period. With a sharp increase in visitor numbers to the Calanais Visitor Centre in recent years, the facility is undergoing an ambitious redevelopment to turn it into a world class visitor centre.
The HIE fund supports Calanais (Callanish) Visitor Centre to work in collaboration with The University of St Andrews to use digital technologies to 3D scan the stone circles and to map buried features associated with the site. This will create a digital interactive experience of how the stones looked at various stages throughout times while bringing them to life. The digital remote sensing techniques will also provide information for the reconstruction of the entire landscapes surrounding the stones and place them in their original context.
Dr Richard Bates from The University of St Andrews, said:
“We bring together a team of geophysical, archaeological and landscape reconstruction experts to investigate Calanais in an attempt to understand more about the people who lived there and erected the stone circles. The concentration of stone circles around Calanais is remarkable, but it is also intriguing that there is the lack of other sites that could tell us about the people who lived there. By reconstructing the Neolithic landscape we hope to be able to find further evidence of the people and so ultimately to better understand the stone circles themselves.”
Victoria Harvey, Project Development Officer at Calanais Visitor Centre, said:
“Relatively little is known about the lives of our Neolithic ancestors some 5000 years ago. The ‘Beneath the Peat’ project will allow The University of St Andrews to delve underneath the current landscape to understand life in the Hebridean Neolithic. Visitor numbers have grown rapidly at the famous Callanish Stones and here at the visitor centre. This has given us an opportunity to not only redevelop it but, to boost the heritage focus by sharing the story of the stones through modern technology. This fund helps us to develop and implement a highly innovative digital experience which helps us diversify as a social enterprise while offering more opportunities for local people and visitors to engage with their local cultural heritage.”
Carloway Community Association (CCA) is developing a new Rural Life Centre on the site of the former Carloway School. The centre will offer a unique digital heritage experience using a combination of virtual and augmented reality, projection mapping and hologram technology. This will create a full sensory journey to transport the visitor back in time to experience island life in the past to the present day, and will include a focus on Hebridean education and Gaelic. The group is currently working with Comann Eachraidh Charlabhaigh, Gearannan, and Glasgow Caledonian University as well as a digital company to develop the fully digitised immersive experience.
Don Mackay from the Carloway Community Association, said:
“Our ambitious Rural Life Centre will bring the heart back into Carloway, largely lost when the local primary school closed four years ago. We have already acquired the school building which is fantastic and we are delighted that funding from HIE allows us to drive forward our digital interpretation project. We are progressing well on content creation with our partners, as well as developing the technology and associated hardware. We look forward to this project going live in Spring 2018 when it becomes a key visitor attraction for local people and visitors – making the Carloway area a better place to live, work and visit.”
The Highlanders’ Museum: The Highlanders’ Museum is a five – star rated Museum located in Fort George near Inverness and is the largest regimental museum in Scotland outside Edinburgh. The collection of the Highlanders’ Museum has recently been recognised as nationally significant to Scotland. The Recognition Scheme, administered by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, ensures that Scotland’s most important collections are identified, cared for and promoted to wider audiences.
The HIE fund will allow the museum to digitise its entire collection which includes medals, textiles, silver items and paintings. The online archives will be easily accessible and will enhance displays to make the museum experience more interactive to an international audience. It is expected that a permanent post will be created to oversee the digital archive project.
Kirstin Mackay from The Highlanders’ Museum, said:
“We are delighted with the funding from HIE. It allows us to take advantage of the growing market demand for digital technologies which help us to diversify our museum in a new and innovative way. The Highlanders’ Museum is a significant asset for the region and we are ambitious to grow our visitor numbers and trading income for the sustainable future of the museum.”
Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre: The new Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre which was formerly known as the Tomintoul Museum and Visitor Centre is officially opening in spring 2018. The current refurbishment is being funded through the Heritage Lottery Funded Tomintoul & Glenlivet Landscape Partnership and Cairngorms LEADER. It is owned and managed by the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust (TGDT).
The HIE fund will enable the new centre to provide a fully immersive visual experience focusing on the past local illicit whisky industry, capturing the illicit stills which were at work during the 18th and early 19th Centuries. This immersive experience will also incorporate 360 degree video of the landscape of the area today, encouraging people to explore the areas ‘hidden’ landscapes. The virtual reality experience will sit alongside oral and photographic histories which have been collected by local volunteers which will also be presented interactively as part of the museum display via sound pods and digital photo frames.
Uncut versions of oral history and photos will be catalogued in the archive area of the Discovery Centre and virtual reality technology is being developed as well as a 360 degree experience of an illicit still. Through Interface, TGDT is accessing expert academic support from Smart History, The University of St Andrews.
Oliver Giles (Local Development Officer) from TGDT, said:
“The funding from HIE will help us to provide an interactive and immersive experience that draws on the heritage of the area as well as helping us to further celebrate the landscapes of today. It will be a dynamic experience within the new Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre using the latest technology, encouraging more people to go out and explore the area’s rich cultural and natural heritage and bring our local history to life.”
Digital Heritage Workshops
To mark 2017 as the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, #hellodigital from HIE delivered a series of 5 workshops on Digital Heritage in Orkney, the Western Isles, Dunoon, Moray and Inverness. With support from Interface the series brought together leading academics working in the field of digital heritage and demonstrated a range of areas where digital technology has been used in the heritage sector. A number of subjects were covered ranging from laser scanning, emerging virtual reality and augmented technologies, to virtual recreations of the museum experience and artefact preservation. The workshop sessions are now available to watch online here.
Looking to the future, a family-run oyster farm on Lismore wanted to diversify by introducing a new product which would help offer local employment and more economic security.
Poaching oysters in unusual flavours such as artisan gin, white wine, champagne and lemon was the brainwave of Mairi Hawkes, whose father started farming oysters from the Isle of Lismore, 25 years ago. Before launching the new product range, Mairi wanted to carry out some research to ensure that the shellfish didn’t shrink during the process, had as long a shelf life as possible and develop the flavours.
Lorraine Thomson, who heads up Interface’s Highlands and Islands team, met Mairi at an event in Oban. Lorraine scoped up a brief of the project requirements which was sent out to universities and research institutes throughout Scotland for consideration. Mairi chose to collaborate with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), which has expertise in food production and whose chefs helped the business work on the technical challenges presented.
Through SRUC, the project was awarded a £5,000 Innovation Voucher from the Scottish Funding Council which Interface administered to help offset the costs of the collaboration.
The business is now working on the logistics of producing the poached oysters and is preparing for the launch of a range of cocktail-inspired drizzles using similar flavours to complement their fresh oysters.
Interface has introduced almost 2,700 businesses in all sectors across Scotland to academic partners, from kitchen table enterprises to family run companies and community groups.
Lorraine explained:
“We are here to support businesses through their collaboration with academic expertise and make the process of finding a suitable partner as straight-forward as possible; we really are matchmakers for businesses.”
Among the businesses Lorraine and the team have supported locally are Craine Communications, Zing Organics and Staffin Community Trust, which were connected with Heriot-Watt University, University of Strathclyde and The University of the Highlands and Islands respectively, for projects to develop their business or organisation.
And it is more than just academic expertise on offer; business can also access specialist facilities including 3D printers, microscopy, human performance labs, wave tanks, virtual reality and textile printing, which come with the know-how at the university or research institute.
Scotland wants to be a leading innovative nation: we have the people and the resources to make this happen, however there are some obstacles to overcome.
Two things smaller companies often lack are money and time to undertake research and development and yet it is within Scotland’s 344,000 small and medium-sized businesses that many ideas reside.
The importance of innovation cannot be overstated; without it businesses stall and the economy slows. The demand for new, better and improved products, services and processes from consumers is high, which is what makes today’s business world so exciting and full of opportunities.
The word “innovation” was peppered throughout the 2017-18 Programme for Government with 30 mentions in all areas of work, from public health to companies increasing their research and development.
Earlier this month (September) we published an economic impact report based on survey data and in-depth interviews with businesses and academics who have worked with Interface over the last ten years. The figures speak for themselves: business-academic projects supported by Interface have enabled Scottish businesses to generate £64.2 million gross value added (GVA) annually for the Scottish economy, supporting around 1,060 Scottish jobs.
Looking ahead, the economic impact attributable to Interface could increase to more than £195.3 million GVA/year, supporting almost 3,500 jobs, if future expectations of the businesses are realized.
The report shows that 46% of businesses have increased their turnover and 31% have increased employment as a result of their collaboration. 54% expect turnover and employment to increase in the future as a direct result of the collaborative project with academics.
The Scottish Government’s vision as a “nation with ambition”, is for Scotland to design and produce the products of the future boosting growth and creating jobs. As our report demonstrates, marrying businesses to universities, research institutes and colleges has a significant impact on both.
Small and medium-sized enterprises play a crucial role in contributing to the economy and we have worked with hundreds of SMEs – 17% are start-ups with one employee, 22% have less than 10 employees and 56% employ under 50 people.
One of the biggest challenges is persuading the many businesses which do not undertake research and development at all to consider it as part of their plans, company culture and ambition.
But taking the first step to working with academics can be daunting. If you are an SME with a limited number of employees tasked to carry out specific roles and margins are tight, then finding the capacity to look at what you are currently doing and identifying areas ripe for improvement is challenging.
We are often described as matchmakers, and people are at the centre of all that we do; from the passionate team at Interface, who aim to “get it right” for our customers, and the business people we are supporting in their goals, to the academic experts at the cutting edge of research and learning (five Scottish universities are ranked in the respected Times Higher Education list of the top 200 worldwide).
Academics and research teams also benefit from business-led collaborations. Our report highlighted a multitude of benefits including introductions to new research areas, entering international markets, additional research funding, new collaborative partnerships, developing intellectual property and commercial links. In addition, academic institutions benefited from increased reputation and new skills acquired by staff.
Life sciences, aerospace, renewables and financial technology are among the industries being targeted to boost growth, alongside traditionally strong sectors such as food and drink. Our sectors team has supported more than 300 business in tourism, food and drink and creative industries through a multiparty approach – clusters of businesses and academics working together to overcome common challenges.
Innovative ideas can come from anyone anywhere leading to evolution or revolution of a company. There are many examples of people on the factory floor or poring over data who come up with good ideas. Small improvements to a process or adaptations to a product can lead to new markets, improved efficiencies and increased turnover. From ideas to invoices, workplace innovation starts with encouraging and supporting people to be creative, think big, and try to solve problems.
We have some fantastic examples of business-academic collaboration – take a look at the case studies on our website to read some of the stories.
The Scottish Government’s aim for innovation to become an intrinsic part of our culture, society and economy is achievable. We need to work together to make this possible – the enterprise agencies, business support organisations, government, business community and academia – a true ‘Can Do’ collaboration.
Dr Siobhán Jordan, Director, Interface
Click here to read a summary of the economic impact report of Interface-supported collaborations.
Borders businesses are tapping into support from some of the country’s brightest minds to help innovate and expand.
They have latched on to a smart solution which puts them in touch with talent at Scottish universities, research institutes and colleges, helping them innovate and drive forward their business. As a result, firms are witnessing growth, cutting costs and expanding in ways they may otherwise have struggled to achieve.
Scottish businesses from a range of industries and of all sizes have seized access to the support offered by Interface, a free and impartial service that acts as a go-between for businesses and Scotland’s 23 universities and research institutes.Interface then matches the right academic expert to meet individual organisation’s needs.Since its launch in 2005, Interface has introduced over 2600 businesses from across Scotland to academic partners. Almost a quarter of businesses had less than ten employees.
Ian Walker, owner/director of tourism business Borders Journeys approached Interface with his idea to introduce a new ancestry research line and was connected with specialists at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh to analyse the market potential of his idea.
It’s already been effective:
“Since the project completed, I have seen a significant increase in clients contacting me regarding ancestral research and tours,” says Ian.
Shelley Breckenridge, Interface Business Engagement Manager covering the Borders, says: “We work with businesses and organisations large and small in all sectors, finding them an academic match who can help them create new products, services and processes. “Borders businesses can benefit in many ways by collaborating with academic expertise, for example increasing turnover, saving time and resource through improving processes, safeguarding and creating jobs and successfully entering new markets as a result of improved or new products.”
Ninety seven per cent of businesses said that their project would either not have happened or taken longer without support from Interface, while 83 per cent reduced operating costs, increased productivity, profits, export, turnover and new or safeguarded employment.
As well as forging academic links, business can also access specialist facilities, such as 3D printers, microscopy, human performance labs, wave tanks, virtual reality and textile printing.
By Sandra Dick, Southern Reporter
http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/get-smart-how-to-grow-your-business-1-4515807
Dame Ellen MacArthur, famed for her incredible sailing achievements, is now spearheading an inspiring vision for an economy that works – one that benefits business, society and the environment.
When she was sailing single-handed around the globe, the yachtswoman became acutely aware of self-sufficiency: everything she needed on the 73-day trip had to be carried on her yacht so had to be carefully chosen and used, with little going to waste. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation aims to “accelerate the transition to a circular economy”, working with business, academia and government to meet its goals.
Interface supports the key themes of the Scottish Government’s economic strategy, including promoting environmental sustainability through our own endeavours and those of the businesses we assist by matching them with academic expertise in Scotland’s universities, research institutes and colleges. One of the core concepts in the circular economy is designing waste out, and many companies we work with have focused their efforts to investigate where this can be converted into something else of value.
Our Sectors Team specifically supports groups of businesses tackle industry-wide environmental issues which could positively impact on many companies.
One company involved in our Food & Drink Environmental Sustainability Group undertook a project with Edinburgh Napier University and made substantial savings both to the environment and their production costs. The company, a major food manufacturer, and the academics undertook a feasibility study looking at recovering hot air from their production line through a novel heat exchange system to reheat their drying process. The company went onto implement the findings and have saved an estimated £800,000 in energy costs.
Meanwhile, academics from the University of Strathclyde, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Edinburgh have been working with fruit and vegetable growers to tackle an industry-wide challenge of waste plastics in agriculture, as the majority currently goes to landfill. The project has highlighted an opportunity to process waste agricultural plastics into a polyethylene wax which is used in many industrial applications; plastic additives, lubricants, coatings, printing ink production, cosmetics and candle making to name a few.
Academic input came from chemistry and geoscience research teams but also from experts in supply chains as, with any innovation project, there needs to be commercial viability. Although the project hasn’t finished yet, one of the key findings is that to make this process a commercial reality on an industrial scale, there is a need for other industries to think differently about their waste plastics and work in collaboration across all industry sectors.
Putting waste to good use is also progressing in Fife with vegetable supplier Ivan Wood & Sons’ spin-off company Peel Tech Ltd. It makes a filtration system designed to catch waste starch produced by food processing outlets which include the UK’s 10,500 fish and chip shops. New legislation banning starch from public drains prompted Malcolm Wood to work with academics at Abertay University on his “eureka-moment” idea to develop a filter product. The waste starch has been turned into a vegetable stock product with further applications currently being developed.
Aquaculture has its fair share of green stories as well – particularly when you think of Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture, where some fish farms are using the waste from the cages to help grow shellfish and seaweed on nearby lines which feed off the nutrients in the water. I particularly like an example from FishFrom, a company which has set up a prawn farm in Fife. They have been working with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) to retrofit a recirculation unit which allows the water to be recycled. The water is cleaned through a number of processes including filtration, UV lighting and a filter which retains a species of worm which feeds on the waste. These worms can then be used as an alternative protein source in fish feed.
We have also worked closely with many businesses founded on green principles, such as Plan Bee, a beehive management company and producer of hive products. Founder Warren Bader wanted to test the nutritional value and antiseptic qualities of Scottish honey compared with Manuka honey, and so Interface helped find him an academic match at the University of Glasgow. Plan Bee have recently installed a hive on the roof of the Festival Theatre, which adjoins Interface’s offices. While the bees above are busy cross pollinating the flowers, we will be working very hard to cross pollinate these ideas and technologies to other sectors to do our bit for the circular economy.
Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, the Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, discovered first-hand how a partnership between a publisher of school study guides and a Scottish university has benefited more than 60,000 students and teachers.
The Minister was visiting Interface, the matchmaking service for business-academic partnerships, which introduced Bright Red Publishing to Edinburgh Napier University for a collaboration to create an online study platform to support their printed study guides.
The visit took place at Interface’s Edinburgh office on Potterrow today (Tuesday 2 May), the first day pupils were sitting National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams.
The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said:
Family dinners sitting round the dining room table may be a thing of the past, while younger consumers have switched to eating “mini meals”, according to an international speaker on global food and drink industry issues.
Professor David Hughes, of Imperial College London, made the comment at an event for food and drink businesses and academics looking at how foods can be reformulated to make them healthier.
“Millennials don’t do dinner- if you ask them ‘what’s for dinner?’, they say, ‘what’s dinner?’. They have mini meals at 7pm, 11pm or whenever they are hungry,” he told around 90 delegates at the Food and Drink Reformulation for Health event held at Murrayfield this week.
Meanwhile, people over 60 are trying to prolong life by eating healthier options and 40% of meals are eaten by people dining alone, with a further 40% being consumed by just two people.
“People are expressing a huge interest in health food but health is trumped by price, taste and convenience,” he added.
Delegates also heard from academics specialising in different aspects of nutritional health, as well as businesses which have reformulated products to make them healthier by reducing or increasing certain ingredients, such as sugar and fibre. These ranged from healthy chocolate and low sugar muffins to changing the composition of food to make you feel fuller and using alginates from seaweed in bread to reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body.
David Thomson, CEO of Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland, said:
“Our food and drink members in Scotland and across the UK share society’s concerns about the health of the nation – particularly in relation to rising obesity levels.
“A balanced approach covering diet, education and lifestyle is needed. Industry is playing its part in this with reformulation and portion change considered to be the most effective tools for tackling obesity. Food and drink manufacturers have a strong record of successfully voluntarily reformulating products in line with public health goals and consumer expectations.
“FDF Scotland’s recent reformulation event held in collaboration with Interface showcased some of the excellent work food and drink companies are already doing. But they stand ready to do more which is why we are working closely with the Scottish Government, Food Standards Scotland and industry partners to find the best way to improve the Scottish diet.”
Howell Davies, Sector Engagement Project Manager at Interface, said:
“We are working with groups of food and drink producers and industry partners by matching them with suitable academic experts in Scotland to come up with new ways of meeting the reformulation challenge.
“Interface has dedicated Food & Drink experts within their newly formed Sector Team, ready to tap into the world-class expertise and facilities that is available in the 23 Scottish Universities and Research Institutes on behalf of the industry in Scotland. Individual businesses working in collaboration with academia, or working in partnership with other businesses in a group with academia has been extremely beneficial and has generated numerous projects which has led to successful innovative products, processes or services.
“Some of those businesses and academics were present at the Food & Drink Reformulation for Health event at Murrayfield hosted by Interface and FDF Scotland, and brought to life the huge potential and success of business to academic collaboration.”
Note to editors:
Food and Drink Reformulation for Health was held at Murrayfield Stadium on Thursday 9 February, organised by Interface and the Food and Drink Federation Scotland.
Interface connects businesses from all sectors to Scotland’s 23 universities and research institutions. It is a unique service designed to address the growing demand from organisations and businesses which want to partner with academia.
Interface also identifies opportunities for businesses to work as multi-party groups with academia from all disciplines through its Sectors Engagement team.
Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland is the voice of the Scottish food and drink manufacturing industry – Scotland’s largest manufacturing sector.
For more information please contact:
Suzy Powell, PR and Communications Executive, Interface.
Tel: 0845 0130536
Email: suzy.powell@interface-online.org.uk
First Minister opens new funding for communities and third sector.
Community and third sector projects that try new ways to tackle poverty and improve people’s lives can now apply for a share of £29 million funding, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The Scottish Government will direct £18.9 million into a new Aspiring Communities Fund to help organisations find new, long lasting community led solutions to poverty, by increasing economic activity or enhancing services to meet local needs.
The £9.7 million Growing the Social Economy Programme will enable third sector organisations to try new ideas and approaches by collaborating with research organisations or supporting people to improve their skills.
The £29 million funding over the next two years supports the Fairer Scotland Action Plan, published last October. £12 million of the total funding comes from the European Social Fund.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was today at Plantation Productions, an arts charity in Govan, to take part in art, media and craft projects.
The First Minister said:
“We are doing everything possible to create a more equal Scotland, and our Fairer Scotland Action Plan features 50 concrete actions to tackle poverty and inequality. This funding of £29 million will support communities and the third sector in developing new ways to help people overcome disadvantage.
“Over the next two years, the investment in these two Funds will deliver positive and innovative approaches to improve people’s lives through boosting skills or delivering new services to meet community needs – and crucially, giving people the power to take charge and make changes in their own communities.
“Almost half of this funding comes from the European Social Fund which promotes inclusive growth and supports those who are disadvantaged – and the best way to continue that support beyond 2020 is by maintaining Scotland’s relationship with Europe.”
Moya Crowley, Project Manager at Plantation Productions said:
“As a Community Arts and Media Charity embedded in the heart of Govan, Glasgow, Plantation Productions very much welcomes this news. It is extremely encouraging to see the commitment of the Scottish Government in strengthening the third sector and local communities through this funding.
“For organisations like Plantation Productions, the Aspiring Communities Fund and Growing Social Economy Programme promise a very optimistic view for the future. With strained resources, this funding offers an opportunity to maintain, develop and grow community led initiatives, respond to local aspirations and needs and support the most deprived communities in Scotland.”
Background
The Fairer Scotland Action Plan is available at www.gov.scot/FairerScotland.
Growing the Social Economy Programme
Funding of between £30,000 and £250,000 is available and the programme is open to applications.
The programme will enable third sector organisations to support people to move into better paid employment, increase household income, improve people’s skills and empower people to find solutions to poverty themselves. It will also support social innovation through collaboration between the third sector and research organisations – bringing people together from different backgrounds to design and test innovative approaches to social problems.
Information about the Programme
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/15300/ESFTPSI
Guidance and applications for the Social Economy Growth Fund:
https://beta.gov.scot/publications/social-economy-growth-fund-guidance/
Applications for the Social Innovation Fund:
https://beta.gov.scot/publications/social-innovation-fund-guidance/
Aspiring Communities Fund
This Fund will support disadvantaged communities across Scotland and will be open at the end of January 2017. It will support applications from organisations working collaboratively to accelerate the delivery of community-led initiatives to deliver outcomes that meet local needs and priorities. The Fund will strengthen communities, increase levels of economic activity, stimulate inclusive growth, and support local service provision and inclusion by:
- Enabling communities to design and establish new or enhanced services addressing poverty and inequalities;
- Supporting new staff posts within community organisations to increase levels of economic activity, local service provision and inclusion, and enhance community resilience; and
- Accelerating the implementation of projects and services delivering longer lasting community-led solutions.
Rarely a day goes by without an announcement about a ground-breaking development to improve our population’s health: life-enhancing medicines, technology or treatments to tackle 21st Century health issues, such as dementia, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
And whilst there are no easy remedies to the challenges facing our public health providers in balancing budgets in parallel to maintaining services, Scotland is in an enviable position when it comes to the world-leading expertise in our universities and research institutions.
Tapping into the rich and varied seam of expertise and knowledge across multiple disciplines can significantly alleviate the pressure on the NHS through collaborations leading to new products, services and processes.
Technological advancements have opened many new doors allowing a better understanding of diseases, the human body or how to support vulnerable people with assisted living. And the pace of these new discoveries continues with many Scottish Scientists leading the way.
Knowledge and ideas are combining to produce exciting solutions which boost health and wellbeing to a level well beyond the imagination just a few years ago.
Wearable tech, once limited to the world of science fiction, is a growing market which is being tapped into with great success by Scottish entrepreneurs.
The story of Christopher McCann, from medical student to the brains behind snap40, is a great example. When he was a student, he noticed that manual systems of gathering data on the vital signs of patients meant that deteriorations in patients were not seen until long after they had started.
Christopher’s solution? A wearable armband designed to monitor patients’ health in hospitals. When it required a portable, wearable and low-power ultrasound sensor to monitor hydration levels – dehydration is a significant problem in hospitals – Interface was able to support his innovation journey by understanding the issues and finding the expertise in the University of the West of Scotland. The project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher and through follow on support from the Digital Health & Care Institute (DHI).
The potential cost and time savings to hospitals of such collaboration are obvious; however there is also the benefit to the economy of an ambitious start-up which is creating employment in Scotland.
Reducing the need for medical intervention and saving time and budgets are also at the heart of CM2000’s technology. Their software is designed for remote and mobile healthcare workers, service users and their families, helping with scheduling visits, monitoring and measuring well-being as well as assessing the likelihood of the onset of illness. This enables “at-risk” clients to be easily identified and closely monitored.
CM2000 approached Interface looking at how the vast amount of data which is collected from community care visits could be used to evaluate the long-term health of an individual, giving further support to those administering care, as well as those receiving it.
Developments to the software have benefited from the input of expertise at Edinburgh Napier University and an ongoing partnership will further develop the data analytics capabilities. The overall aim is to gather additional information on patients’ conditions, in line with NHS and Local Council requirements, developing predictive techniques.
The work that CM2000 has undertaken with Edinburgh Napier University has also led to larger scale projects with DHI.
Digital health and care interventions are recognised as key to the solution in tackling the pressures of Scotland’s ageing population crisis and DHI, one of Scotland’s eight Innovation Centres funded by the Scottish Funding Council, is crucial to this. They bring together people and organisations in the health and social care, charity, technology, design and academic sectors to develop new ideas for digital health and care technology that will improve the delivery of health and care services for Scotland’s communities and help the economy by supporting Scottish businesses which develop and commercialise such technologies.
Frequently, business-academic collaborations have wider resonance in the community and emerge from solving common every day challenges. Award-winning design company Studio LR were frustrated that every new hospital or medical centre displayed its own signage, which could be confusing to people with dementia – estimated to be 90,000 in Scotland and rising.
They wanted to tap into the latest research to inform their designs, and Interface was able to match them with two universities – the University of Edinburgh and the University of Stirling – for a feasibility study on how they could approach this. The partnership led to the production of a set of guidelines for creating consistent signage to increase independence and wellbeing for older people and dementia patients in care homes, hospitals or other environments.
The partnership between Studio LR and the University of Edinburgh continues through researching the effectiveness of symbols and whether people living with dementia understand their meaning. The project is funded by The Life Changes Trust who are supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
There are no easy answers to balancing the books of our National Health Service, but more businesses working collaboratively with universities and research institutions is certainly part of the solution.
This article first appeared in The Scotsman