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The Universities of Abertay, St Andrews and Dundee are co-organising a workshop for researchers from across the region to explore how our inventions and discoveries can be commercialised through the formation of companies (spin outs).

Funded by the Scottish Government, the workshop is part of the Pipeline Flywheel Project, an initiative to foster collaboration across our Scottish Universities, Colleges and Research Organisations that will lead to growth in the quantity and quality of spin outs.

Activity

The day will include practical activity to tease out and develop commercial opportunities that could arise from your work. You will also be invited to contribute your views research commercialisation – how do we build the pipeline, motivate researchers and create successful ventures? The hope is that you will leave inspired to continue exploring your ideas and armed with pointers to funding and support.

The workshop will be facilitated by Cait Murray-Green and Andrew King of Strategic Scientific Consulting.

Who is it for?

People involved in research from

If you are from another organisaiton then contact the organiser.

The event is open to everyone from Early Career Researchers through to experienced Principal Investigators and clinicians interested in commercialising ideas. The event is sector agnostic and suitable for all research disciplines.

If you are unsure whether the event is right for you, contact Elaine Kearney, ekearney004@dundee.ac.uk

Gillian Hambley of Interface will be attending this event

Find out more and book

A one-day event where you’ll hear inspiring impact success stories, meet potential collaborators from other Scottish universities, and explore funding and training opportunities to kick-start your own impact-focused projects.

The IAA Impact Festival is organised by the five Scottish universities with EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs): Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and St Andrews.

Speakers

This year’s keynote speaker is Fran Scott. Listed in The Progress 1000 London’s most influential people, Fran is the Science Content Developer at the Royal Institution as well as being the only female science presenter on CBBC. A scientist by training and an engineer at heart, Fran uses her knowledge to entertain and excite audiences of stage and screen. She is best known for her playful (and often fiery) demonstrations on the CBBC show Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom. With her own production company, Great Scott! Productions, she writes and produces high-octane shows for clients such as Google for Education, Mishkat Science Centre, Siemens and National Grid. Balancing entertainment with education, Fran manages to inject her demonstrations with narrative and humour to make them as enjoyable as they are informative.

You’ll also hear lightning talks from impact leaders at the five organising universities, sharing insights into their projects and the value of partnering with industry, government, and the third sector.

Networking sessions

Meet other researchers from across Scotland and creatively explore opportunities to collaborate through facilitated, structured networking sessions.

Exhibitors

In the exhibition space, you will meet funders and innovation hubs that can provide support for your impact activities. Interface are exhibiting at this event.

Learn more and register

Revolutionising how banks identify and support vulnerable customers

Background

Serene is a fintech company that aims to integrate advanced technology, scientific expertise, and a deep understanding of human vulnerabilities, to create a serene financial experience. They aim to revolutionise how banks identify and support their vulnerable customers through reshaping the industry and fostering long-term consumer financial wellbeing.

The company was born from CEO Savannah Price’s personal experience supporting her sister through mental health challenges where it became apparent that irregularities in financial behaviour signalled deeper issues and complexities related to mental health issues.

Savannah recognised the need for a solution that could help financial institutions identify and support customers grappling with the more “invisible” vulnerabilities like poor mental health and changes in life circumstances.

The Journey

Interface initially supported Serene with a student project with the University of Aberdeen focussing on the correlation between spending behaviour and mental health. Interface then linked them into the TSB Labs accelerator programme, this helped them refine and test their value propositions to solve strategic TSB opportunities. It gave them a chance to work with business sponsors, pitch their propositions to senior leaders, run a proof of concept and launch their proposition with TSB customers.

Interface was tasked by Serene to identify academics that could help create a first-of-its-kind Machine Learning-enabled early identification system for poor mental health & financial vulnerability. This would develop further thinking and provide evidence around the linking of poor mental and financial health through accessing and analysing synthetic, open banking and health data.

Interface linked Serene with Dr Marcel Lukas from the University of St Andrews who brought significant expertise in financial wellbeing, data analysis, and experience working with fintech start-ups to this project, especially his research into budgeting and expense prediction using open banking data. Similarly, the project analysed synthetic and real consumer transaction data provided by Smart Data Foundry and the Serene Community. The collaboration was funded by the Interface-led Inward Investment Catalyst Fund.*

* The Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund launched by Interface and the Scottish Government promotes Scotland as a leading destination for inward investment and supports businesses not yet located in Scotland but seeking to establish stronger ties with academia here. As well as funding research and development it provides an opportunity for the company to establish relationships and give insight into other aspects of the Scottish landscape, such as further investment opportunities, supply chains and the skills base to strengthen the case for investing in Scotland.

The Challenge

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) defines a vulnerable customer to be someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to harm, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care. According to FCA, more than half (53%) of adults in the UK display indications of potential vulnerability, yet service providers only recognise a mere 3% of these cases (FCA,2023). Since 2020, the FCA has issued circa £2 billion in fines for firms’ mistreatment of vulnerable customers that were not identified. To safeguard potentially vulnerable consumers effectively, consumer finance firms must identify such individuals and obtain a comprehensive understanding of their circumstances in real time which remains a critical challenge for financial firms that currently lack effective and inclusive tools to identify and support their vulnerable customers. This is especially pertinent with the FCA’s new consumer duty rolled out in June 2023, where financial firms face increasing regulatory pressure to do right by their vulnerable customers. Without the correct tools to do so, they are at risk of huge financial and reputational damage.

The Solution

In response to this, Serene is developing a proprietary tool to facilitate better identification of vulnerable customers through a suite of machine learning algorithms. It aims to empower financial firms to offer personalised interventions based on consumers unique needs and circumstances. Unlike existing solutions, Serene’s analytics function continuously, and in real-time – a core differentiator, as well as taking a more proactive and predictive approach. By combining financial and mental health insights, Serene will revolutionise how banks identify and support their vulnerable customers, reshaping the industry and fostering long-term consumer financial wellbeing. The project focuses on the identification of financial ‘biomarkers’ indicative of mental health vulnerabilities. In addition, the output of this project will inform the opportunities and challenges in developing financial data-driven interventions to support vulnerable consumers.

Dr Lukas and his team at St Andrews University applied theoretical frameworks from his academic research on financial behaviour analysis to develop novel approaches for vulnerability detection. His expertise in analysing open banking data patterns, developed through years of academic research, was instrumental in enabling Serene to identify key vulnerability areas under the three FCA defined categories of Health, Life Events & Financial Resilience and created a framework to understand the financial nature of each vulnerability. They went on to develop a Vulnerability Impact Analysis Framework to create a relationship model between vulnerabilities and financial behaviours, developed the Serene Score and a secure web portal to upload and analyse real financial data leading to the development of algorithms and software for analysis proving Serene’s concept and resulting in an evidence-based vulnerability identification model.

The Benefits

Company Benefits

Academic Benefits

The Next Steps

Without innovation, the world would be a very different place – quite simply, it would never change. It’s at the forefront of everything we do as a society and is integral to businesses.

Such innovation often comes from research carried out by academics and research professionals in universities and businesses across the world. That research allows organisations to create positive impact on our communities and environment, saves lives and empowers people to have a greater quality of life.

Join the 4 Innovation Centres as well as other Innovation Support Institutions at Walter Bower House at the University of St Andrews to allow the academic research community and businesses to connect and learn more about the support they offer. This event is hosted by the University of St Andrews but open to colleagues at Abertay University and the University of Dundee.

Who is the event for:

Schedule:

1.00pm – Networking Lunch and Arrivals (Entrepreneurship Centre)
2.00pm – Welcome and Introductions by: Innovation Centres, Interface, EoS KTP Centre, IUK Business Connect (Cathedral Room)
3:15pm – Exhibitions and networking (Cathedral Room)
4.00pm – Exhibition Close
4.00pm – Eden Campus tours

Shelley Breckenridge of Interface will be presenting at this event so come along and hear how Interface can support you.

Learn more and register

A one-day event for academics from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, St Andrews, and Strathclyde. Hear impact success stories, find a collaboration partner from another Scottish university, and access funds for impact collaborations.

The festival will be held on 4 September 2024 at COSLA, Edinburgh Haymarket and will support you to:

Interface will be exhibiting at the festival please come along and say hello!

Book Now

This one-day event will showcase impact success stories, offer you a chance to find a partner from another Scottish university, and give you the opportunity to access funds for impact collaborations. Inspirational sessions include a keynote speech from Mark Miodownik and skills development and networking facilitated by Skillfluence.

The IAA Impact Festival is organised by the five Scottish universities with EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs): University of Edinburgh, University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow, Heriot-Watt University and University of St Andrews.

Plenary sessions

Our keynote speaker is Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials and Society at UCL. He champions materials science research that links to the arts and humanities, medicine and society. Mark established the Institute of Making, where he is a director and runs the research programme. He also recently set up the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub to carry out research into solving the environmental catastrophe of plastic waste. Mark is a broadcaster and writer on science and engineering issues, and believes passionately that to engineer is human. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to materials science, engineering and broadcasting.

The keynote will be followed by lightning talks from impact leaders from the five leading Scottish universities in science and engineering. The speakers will share their experiences of creating different types of impact from social and policy impact to industry collaboration, commercialisation and company creation. Learn how our speakers have leveraged the support available to them to further their career and translate their research into impact. The speakers are:

Interface will be exhibiting at this event so come and join us.

Register

Background

The Easter Ross Seaboard is a stretch of coastline approximately fourteen miles in length and the Seaboard villages of Shandwick, Balintore and Hilton are situated halfway along this coast. They are often referred to locally as ‘the villages’ or ‘the Seaboard’ and have a strong background in the fishing industry. The Seaboard Memorial Hall (SMH, also known as the Seaboard Centre), which started out in 1958 as a small village hall, was rebuilt in 2001 and is now a modern adaptable venue with excellent conference, training and arts facilities.  It is the hub of the local community accommodating regular user groups and a community café.

Challenge

Seaboard Memorial Hall Ltd (SMH) was looking to create a new and permanent Heritage Community Centre to serve the local community and attract new tourism to the area.  The Centre was to be based on the extensive and exceptional collection of paintings and memorabilia of John Paterson (1872-1945), a fishing station owner and amateur artist.  Over 200 paintings survive, many being portraits of local people who modelled for him.  The fishing industry that sustained the local community no longer exists but the family has retained a wealth of related materials that will form the core collections for the heritage centre.  The fishing sheds and studio are still in existence and form an integral part of the story.

The immediate aim of SMH was to develop a workforce plan for the centre, identifying the new skills and expertise that would be required for the successful and sustainable operation of the heritage centre.  Such a facility, through the development of a diverse and flexible workforce, both paid and volunteer, would benefit the local community by enhancing this area as a destination of cultural interest.

Solution

After being referred by Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE), the SMH contacted Interface, who were able to secure the expertise of the University of St Andrews Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MCGI).  The MCGI is the research arm of Museum and Gallery Studies at St Andrews. The Museum and Gallery Studies Masters course at the University of St Andrews is the longest running course in Scotland and over the past three decades has built up practical, vocational and research expertise in all areas of museum work.

Their collaborative project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Workforce Innovation Voucher.

Benefits

The resulting products from this collaborative project were:

For the first time, the Heritage Centre will be able to tell the story of the Seaboard area and its past fishing industry, using the time capsule of one local man, his life and work as a lens to focus on and engage with the wider fishing community and society, bringing the rich history of the area to life.  It will bring in new visitor and tourist business, and it will enable the local population to use their personal knowledge of the area in different ways and pass on that local knowledge to visitors and the local younger generation.  It will also offer new workforce opportunities to develop expertise and practice in the many aspects of heritage management.

Impacts

Background

KINGDOM Scotland is developing Scotland’s first creative luxury fragrance house by introducing rare and evocative scents.  As a luxury brand, they source high quality ingredients and their perfume oils are the best grades available. KINGDOM Scotland will draw on the rich flavours and textures of Scotland’s cultural heritage – from landscape and mythology to whisky distilling and the history of perfume in Scotland – in order both to inspire its products and shape its brand. In doing so it hopes to ‘bottle Scotland’ and provide consumers with experiences which put them in touch with Scotland’s complex and fascinating past and present.

Challenge

The director and founder of KINGDOM Scotland, Imogen Russon-Taylor, was initially inspired by her experience working with Scottish whisky brands. She was struck by the connection both between whisky and heritage and between whisky and perfume. Both are produced by traditional distillation methods; both evoke a complex sensory experience; and both rely upon the innovative use of ingredients or flavours to distinguish themselves from competitors. Imogen began to consider the potential for a new brand to ‘bottle Scotland’ and to use perfume to share old narratives in new ways as there were rich stories associated with perfume and natural ingredients in Scotland.

Imogen didn’t have the skills to access these stories through archives and national records so she approached Interface to help her find the necessary university expertise. 

Solution

Imogen was put in touch with PhD student, Dawn Hollis, a historical researcher at the University of St Andrews, to help her look into the history of Scotland’s perfume and to look into sourcing ingredients that had a heritage in Scotland. 

As Dawn focussed her research on the archives and Herbarium collections of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, Imogen became increasingly keen to incorporate the results of this research into a ‘Botanicals’ range, with a focus on ingredients either found within or with a strong connection to Scotland. Dawn suggested drawing upon the collections of famous or interesting Scottish botanists in order to add more exotic flavours to this range, focussing her research on the collections of George Forrest (1873-1932) and Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889-1982).  Profiles were drawn up for both a ‘Botanical Floral’ perfume (inspired by the collections of George Forrest and featuring scents of champacha, rhododendrons, and honeysuckle) and for an ‘Arctic Poppy’ perfume  (now known as Albaura, inspired by Isobel Wylie Hutchison and drawing on ‘green’ Arctic scents).

The project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher.

Benefits

This project will support the development of what is certainly the first Scottish luxury perfume house in many years, if not the first in Scottish history. It is underpinned by the considerable expertise of its founder, whose original inspiration for KINGDOM Scotland was drawn from her experience in the Scottish whisky industry.

Worldwide, Scottish whisky is worth £5billion, making it one of Scotland’s most considerable exports. The global perfume industry, however, is worth £22billion. By bringing both together, KINGDOM Scotland aims to tap into multiple markets, offering considerable benefits in terms of increased revenue and employment.

“Working with St Andrews was very just for this project.  It’s the oldest university in Scotland and by delving into Scotland’s perfume past, it’s been the perfect partnership to bring this project to life”, said Imogen Russon-Taylor, KINGDOM Scotland Ltd.

“Carrying out research on behalf of KINGDOM Scotland was such an exciting and challenging venture – it was fantastic to collaborate with a new Scottish company and to ask new questions of the historical archives based on their needs and interests. It was also wonderful to see my research having a genuine impact on the development of KINGDOM Scotland’s new ranges – not many historians can say they can wear the results of their research as a luxury perfume.” said Dr Dawn Hollis, University of St Andrews.

Kingdom Scotland from University of St Andrews on Vimeo.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.