Overview

Eye tracking software is a popular psychology technique which is used to provide customer reaction for research and product development purposes.

This high-tech equipment can be used to support a number of different sectors from medical research to consumer product testing where packaging, labels, marketing materials and in-store product positioning can be optimised from the results.

Eye tracking can be used alongside other facilities such as sensory suites, colour psychophysics and emotions labs to gather a complete picture of consumer reactions.

Overview

Virtual reality is a rapidly growing industry and Scotland has cutting edge facilities to support research and product development across sectors such as gaming, medicine and training.

Virtual reality systems can also help to replicate environments which may be too dangerous for real life testing, for example training on oil rigs or at sea.

In addition to simulating environments there are also specialist facilities and expertise to support the modeling and simulation of product and process design. 

Overview

Designed for the food and drink industry companies can use sensory suites to gain important consumer feedback through evaluating products on taste, texture, colour and appearance.

Testing consumer preference and behaviour on new and innovative ideas will increase company knowledge and confidence in product quality.

This technique can be used alongside other consumer testing methods, such as eye tracking, to gather a complete picture of consumer reactions which should be an integral part of any product development process.

Overview

Supporting electrical power, renewable energy, system operation and protection the HEI’s power systems labs can carry out testing, modeling and designing of electrical systems.

The power systems labs provide safe and controlled environments which are operated by fully trained technical staff enabling companies to access first class capabilities for power related research.

These specialist facilities provide hardware and software testing which can be applied to industries such as renewable energy, marine & aero systems, power distribution, asset management and intelligent systems.

These specialist facilities provide hardware and software testing which can be applied to industries such as renewable energy, marine & aero systems, power distribution, asset management and intelligent systems.

Overview

Nutrition Labs can support research into diets, foods, ingredients and supplements with highly specialised equipment to help analyse carbohydrates, fats, glucose, cell structures and proteins​.

The food scientists and technologists can also support product development by reformulating existing products, identifying alternative ingredients and developing new processing techniques, for example finding healthier alternatives for fat, salt and sugars.

Once your product has been analysed or re-developed you can use a number of consumer tests to gain valuable feedback – see our details on sensory suites which offer consumer tasting facilities.

Overview

Dedicated studio facilities for video and audio production offer up-to-date digital industry standard equipment including purpose built newsrooms and acoustic labs.

These state of the art studios provide realistic industry settings with the latest high tech equipment including mixing desks, synthesisers, editing software, cameras and green screens with fully trained experts to deliver support and guidance for your project requirements.

Overview

Our universities can help with manufacturing research & development by testing and developing different processes and techniques. There is a huge range of industry specification equipment to support manufacturing processes across all sectors.

The facilities available cover a range of manufacturing themes from high value manufacturing, electronics, microsystems, photonics, chemical and biological to small scale pilot systems, state of the art laboratories and workshops.

Flexible pilot scale facilities are available which can help to produce products at early stage development and once the manufacturing method is tested and validated the process can be scaled up for commercial production.

Overview

Clean labs or clean rooms offer facilities that have controlled levels of contamination free from microbial, particulate and moisture impurities. These are the perfect manufacturing conditions for delicate industries such as electronics, biotechnology and life sciences.

Housed within these clean labs equipment such as lithography, etching, metrology, polishing and microscopy can perform in optimal conditions.

There are other specialist facilities where research can be carried out in controlled environments. See our greenhouse and temperature chamber facilities where conditions can be set to specific temperature, lighting and humidity levels.

Overview

A wide range of facilities exist to support the brewing and distilling industries including experimental plants, fermentation and conditioning tanks, pilot distilleries and micro-maltings.

Research laboratories, analytical equipment and greenhouses are also available to support brewing and distilling projects along with academics and technicians who are experts in this field.

Scotland is also home to the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD), a unique teaching and research facility based on a partnership between industry and academics.