Four companies based in England and one in Singapore are taking forward collaborations with Scottish universities after being awarded funding through the Inward Investment Catalyst Fund.

The Fund was launched by Interface and Scottish Government to support businesses not yet located in Scotland to work with Scottish academic institutions. From advancements in hydrogen energy technology to a heated desk, the projects in this latest funding round support a net zero, health and wellbeing economy.

Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade, Richard Lochhead, said: “The Inward Investment Catalyst Fund is not only paving the way for great collaboration between prospective investors and our highly esteemed universities and academia, but also helping deliver on our ambition for Scotland to be an increasingly attractive location for inward investment.

“The early impacts of the fund have been extremely positive and I am pleased to see another successful round of applications set to support more exciting projects. Through the delivery of the Inward Investment Plan, the Scottish Government will continue to help ensure we make the most of our competitive advantages and strengths to maintain our position as a leading destination for inward investment.”

Howell Davies, Interface’s Head of Strategic Programmes and Funding, said: “I am delighted to see another round of strong applications which has yielded five innovative projects marrying ambitious companies who value Scotland as a place of opportunity with the excellent academic expertise and facilities we have here.”

The five funded projects are:

Extend Robotics (England) and Heriot-Watt University awarded £9,559 to study the impact of a remote robotic training system used by non-technical operators in various industry settings.

Green Flow Energy (England) and Glasgow Caledonian University awarded £9,894 for a feasibility study into developing technology that captures kinetic energy through airflow created by electric buses to increase its operating range.

Simul Software Ltd (England) and University of St Andrews awarded £10,000 to further develop their Teleport protocol for apps using extended reality in the cloud by testing the protocol in commercial gaming systems and the heritage sector.

SunGreenH2 (Singapore) and Heriot-Watt University awarded £10,000 to validate their solar photovoltaics (PV) integrated electrolyser performance in green hydrogen generation, accounting for seasonal differences.

Okoform (England) and University of Strathclyde awarded £9,759.60 to model the effect of their heated desks on energy usage and office air temperature through an advanced thermal modelling framework across various scenarios.