The Oscars of entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh: the Inspire Launch Grow Awards is happening on 6th June, 3pm – 6pm and is offering double the prize fund!

Inspire Launch Grow is about recognising innovation, creativity, and successes as well as the resilience, ambition, and accomplishments of entrepreneurs from the University of Edinburgh.

Accelerate your startup with the Inspire Launch Grow Awards with support, pitching advice and cash prizes to help take your startup to the next level. With three main categories to help kickstart your early-stage startup, nurture your social enterprise or accelerate your established startup. Enter now and be in with a chance of winning a share of the £48,000 prize fund.

This annual celebration of enterprise and a chance for Inspire Launch Grow finalists and winners to pitch and talk about their business with the wider enterprise ecosystem. This event is a celebration of University of Edinburgh students and alumni entrepreneurial success while giving attendees the opportunity to connect and form new partnerships and collaborations. Invitees include University of Edinburgh entrepreneurs, alumni, entrepreneurial organisations, business people, partners, investors and University colleagues. Drinks and catering will be provided. The after-party will take place at the Student Enterprise Hub with a BBQ and more drinks available.

The Business & Enterprise Breakfast Briefing being held at Heriot Watt University Scottish Borders Campus is a unique opportunity for industry leaders and businesses to engage directly with one of the UK’s leading universities in fostering innovation and enterprise.

Why Attend?

• Networking Opportunities: Connect with business leaders, innovators, and academics to expand your professional network.
• Insight into Cutting-Edge Research: Gain insights from pioneering research in sustainable design, medical technology, advanced photonics, and more, showcasing how these can translate into tangible benefits for your business.
• Tour of Innovations: Post-event, take the opportunity to visit the school’s degree showcase.

Key Features:

• Explore the Global Research Innovation Discovery (GRID) ecosystem, Heriot-Watt’s answer to making our university accessible and easy to work in partnership with.
• Hear from some leading academics and researchers on how the university is driving global innovations from across our campuses.
• Discover partnership opportunities across talent and skills, research and development and consultancy IP and licensing. Find out about Graduate Apprenticeships, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), and bespoke consultancy services that can propel your business forward.
• Learn about unlocking government-funded initiatives and how these can benefit your business operations and growth.

Who Should Attend?

This briefing is ideal for Chief Officers, Directors, Business Owners, R&D leaders, and anyone interested in the successful intersection of academia and industry. Whether you’re from a start-up or an established company, you’ll find valuable insights and opportunities for collaboration.

Moray Business Showcase – Moray Chamber’s business to business exhibition is the perfect opportunity for networking, collaboration & growth. Giving you the opportunity to make new business connections and gives your business the perfect platform to sell itself.

Wednesday 5th June 2024
From 10am – 2pm
Moray Sports Centre,
Linkwood Road, Elgin

Whether you want to work with local businesses for procurement, recruitment, business services such as legal, accountancy or even stationery supplies, then the Moray Business Showcase provides you the opportunity to grow your network.

Carol-Ann Adams of Interface will be hosting a table at the showcase so be sure to pop along and say hello and find out how Interface can help you.

Opportunity North East (ONE) is partnering with CodeBase to deliver a regional tech ecosystem event series: Founders’ Fireside. Each Month these sessions bring together local businesses and stakeholders to explore relevant topics for people working in innovation. These sessions will facilitate insightful conversations, broaden our networks, and help raise awareness of the resources available for organisations in the North East.

This May, Interface are delighted to be partnering with ONE and CodeBase to bring you “Getting Business-Academic Collaborations and Funding Right”. Interface are based regionally throughout Scotland and connect organisations and academics working with organisations of all sizes, in all sectors to match them to Scotland’s world-leading academic expertise to help them grow.

With connections into all Scottish universities, research institutes and colleges, Interface has an established and efficient process that will save time and money in identifying and accessing academic expertise, research, technologies, specialist facilities and funding. Gillian Hambley, Interface’s Business Engagement Executive for the North East region will be facilitating this fireside conversation between Kelly Fraser (KTP North), Corrin Fox (Kionnalo) and Dr Ann Lewendon (University of Aberdeen). We’re delighted to bring together this brilliant group of experts from across industry, academia, and funding to discuss the wide diversity of opportunities available to businesses in the North East.

Over the hour-long session, the following will be covered:

• Collaborative work bringing projects to life
• Funding including Innovation Vouchers and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
• Nationwide support available to people working in the North East

This session is open to people based in the North East of Scotland who want to unlock the collaborative potential of Scotland’s universities, research institutes and colleges.

Do you have an idea? Well, don’t let anyone steal it!

Attend this event by the AIMS Project in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway College, taking place at the STEM Hub, in the College, and hear from local businesses and public sector experts on how to protect your intellectual property.

Speakers include :

• Scott Davidson, Founder of Radisoft Ltd who has devised an IoT monitoring device and application for boilers.
• Katie Vance founder of Bubble Flow Ltd who has devised a non-sterile paediatric Positive Expiratory Pressure (PEP) device intended to assist children with lifelong respiratory conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis, Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD) and Bronchiectasis, to clear excess secretions from their lungs.
• Iain Barbour, JBA Seeds, Jamieson Brothers is Scotland’s best known brand of horticultural seed potatoes, garden supplies and animal feeds.
• Mari Findlay, Interface, who connect organisations to academics and will talk about Innovation Voucher Funding.
• Sarah-Jane Burns, Tech Scaler, Code Base – will talk about the technology programme and mentoring scheme
• Jamie Shovelin, D&G Chamber of Commerce – will talk about the business backed mentoring scheme
• Chris Rigby, South of Scotland Enterprise, SoSE, will be sharing some information from The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) who are the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.
• Paul Winstanley, CEO of Censis and Board Chair of Filament STAC, will be talking about the high applications in technology and PACE.
• Euan Devlin, Part Qualified Patent Attorney from Scintilla – will give an introduction into Patent, copyright, trademarks, trade secrets and design rights.
• Ross Colquhoun, Scottish Enterprise – will discuss the core elements of Scottish Enterprises SMART: SCOTLAND programme which can award up to £100,000 of support towards highly innovative R&D projects with strong commercial potential. Ross will also touch upon how this programme relates to your own intellectual property strategy.

This free event will take place at the STEM Hub, Dumfries and Galloway College, Bankend Road, Dumfries, DG1 4FD. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Mari Findlay of Interface is speaking on the day so come along and find out more about what Interface can offer.

Join The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group to celebrate the achievements of the RGU Startup Accelerator entrepreneurs at the annual Startup Showcase event.

The 2024 RGU Startup Showcase will be held on Thursday, 16th May 2024, from 5:30pm to 8:00pm at the Amphitheatre, RGU Campus, Sir Ian Wood Building, RGU Campus, Garthdee Road, AB10 7GJ.

The event marks the culmination of this year’s Accelerator program, where the entrepreneurial startups will showcase their innovative businesses, you can find out more about this year’s cohort here Back to the Future with the RGU Startup Accelerator 2024 | Economic Development | RGU

The finalists will take to the stage to pitch, competing for prize funding for their new ventures – and as in previous years, the audience will get the opportunity to vote for your favourite! The Showcase event also promises Back to the Future themed surprises in store for guests!

Interface’s Gillian Hambley will be in attendance at this event so why not come along and say hello.

Presented in Partnership with Interface and the School of Innovation and Technology (SIT) at Glasgow School of Art.

Tapping into academic skills, resources and capacity can be a powerful way to explore and unlock innovative new products, service and processes for your business, organisation, freelance practice or network. It can also help you think differently about how you approach problems, create additional resource to develop and test ideas and offer valuable support to realise your ambitions more fully.

Although deeper collaborative relationships between academia and the creative, heritage and business sectors holds significant potential, bringing these elements and their distinctive talents together for mutual benefit can be challenging. In this insightful session, Professor Steve Love, School of Innovation and Technology (SIT) at Glasgow School of Art, will offer an overview of their dynamic knowledge exchange ambitions, discuss the specific support programmes networks can access— and look at how this relationship could pave the way for exciting new possibilities.

This interactive online workshop will offer an overview of SIT’s design-led innovation approach and how they could support your businesses, organisations or networks regardless of scale or capacity to engage in the below key areas:

• Take an active part in co-designed activities to enable capacity building and knowledge exchange to collaboratively uncover new opportunities.
• Design, prototype and evaluate new services, applications and work practices.
• Bring cutting-edge thinking into your business to tackle cultural, social and economic challenges, unlock new opportunities and increase innovation more meaningfully.

Carol-Ann Adams, Business Engagement Executive at Interface, will also provide an overview of how they can help make your links with academia work, including the potential to access innovation grants.

The event will also offer attendees the opportunity to discuss their specific projects in more detail, find out how SIT and Interface could support their ambitions and establish next steps.

The School of Innovation and Technology

The School of Innovation and Technology (SIT) at The Glasgow School of Art was formally launched in August 2023 and is a merger between the Innovation School and The School of Simulation and Visualisation. SIT is based at The GSA’s main campus locations in Glasgow and at the GSA’s highland campus in Altyre, Forres.

SIT’s Knowledge Exchange (KE) strategy is based on creating a scalable KE Impact & Innovation Ecosystem and impact-based culture that makes a significant local, national and international difference beyond academia.

Interface

Based regionally throughout Scotland, Interface works with organisations of all sizes and in all sectors, to match them to Scotland’s world-leading academic expertise, to help with their growth ambitions or solve a challenge they may be facing. Our primary aim is to encourage individuals, community groups, businesses & social enterprises in Scotland, to work with a university partner to drive innovation and encourage creativity, turning knowledge and ideas into value for society. With connections into all Scottish universities, colleges and research institutes, Interface has an established and efficient process that will save time and money in identifying and accessing academic expertise, research, technologies, specialist equipment and funding. Our free and impartial service has helped thousands of organisations become more competitive, enabling them to increase their profits, reach new markets and ultimately become more sustainable.

Steve Love

Professor Steve Love is Head of Knowledge Exchange activities in the School of Innovation and Technology at The Glasgow School of Art. His primary research expertise is investigating the impact of digital applications and services on people’s behaviour and lives. His work has been sponsored by funders such as the AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC, InnovateUK, Scottish Funding Council, European Space Agency, the European Social Fund, BT, Sharp Laboratories Europe and “3”. He has extensive experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams from both academia and industry. He is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Peer Review College and a Fellow of the Design Research Society.

Carol-Ann Adams

Carol-Ann worked for 29 years in banking, latterly working in the Corporate Markets division, and attained Chartered Banker status during her career. Having embarked on a lifestyle change, Carol-Ann relocated to the Highlands in 2014, and worked for Highlands and Islands Enterprise’ Inward Investment Team for just under a year. This gave her a fantastic breadth of knowledge of the region in a relatively short space of time. Joining the Interface team in early 2015, Carol-Ann’s role concentrates on promoting the Interface service to as many businesses as possible, encouraging them to enter successful academic collaborations.

Azets are hosting an event with Scotland’s Minister for Small Business, Trade and Innovation, Richard Lochhead, serial entrepreneur Brian Williamson, and a stellar panel of experts for an engaging and informative dive into the world of supporting innovative businesses to help them scale and succeed.

The Government’s vision is for Scotland to be one of the most innovative small nations in the world by 2033.

Event details

Date: Tuesday 23 April 2024

Format and timings:

Arrival: 4:00pm – 4:15pm

Welcome and steer from Richard Lochhead: 4:15pm – 4:25pm

Panel session followed by Q&A: 4:25pm – 5:00pm

Networking and refreshments: 5:00pm – 6:00pm

Location: Azets, 3 Semple Street, Edinburgh, EH3 8BL

Panel Members
• Gemma Monaghan, R&D Tax Partner at Azets
• Craig Hutchison, Patent Attorney at Lawrie
• Andrew Castell, Partner at Par Equity
• Brian Williamson, award-winning entrepreneur

You can register and submit your question for the panel members below.

A showcasing and knowledge sharing event focussed on international development research in Scotland.

The Scottish Funding Council and the University of Glasgow invite you to a workshop and networking event focussed on international development research in Scotland. This event brings together researchers and research professionals from Scottish HEIs and research institutes to showcase their international development research successes, facilitate knowledge sharing across institutions and funders, and identify opportunities for collaborative international development work.

Venue and Programme

Taking place at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre, the event will include:

• Scene setting on international development research in Scotland with funders and key sector stakeholders. Confirmed attendees include the Scottish Government, the Scottish Funding Council, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Wellcome, FCDO and UKRI.
• Institutional Research Briefings – A chance for each attending institution to highlight their international development research portfolios. If appropriate, we welcome information sharing on use of ISPF ODA funding to bolster activity.
• Lunchtime Poster Session – Taking place in a publicly-accessible venue, a showcase of the depth and breadth of Scotland’s international development research activity and an opportunity to create new connections between individuals and teams. Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to submit a poster.
• Break-out discussions – Interactive discussion and feedback session focussed on how Scottish institutions can be collaborating more effectively on international development research.

A final agenda and additional details will be circulated to registered attendees.

This event will take place fully in-person, however the plenary sessions will be recorded and made available at a later date for those unable to attend in person.