Join the fourth Venture Builder Incubator Showcase at Central Hall in Edinburgh’s Tollcross to celebrate the latest in innovation and entrepreneurship . Watch pitches from the inspirational start-ups.
Vote for your favourite – the winners receive cash prizes – and meet the teams afterwards over canapes and refreshments.

This year’s programme has supported 26 Startups to explore and validate the commercial potential of data-driven research. The cohort includes 7 start-ups sponsored by Cancer Research Horizons who are using data to deliver better diagnosis and treatment options for cancer patients. For the first time we have provided targeted support for robotics and autonomous systems projects, thanks to match funding from the Barclays Eagle Labs Ecosystem Partnership Programme, funded by the UK Government.

About the Venture Builder Incubator
The Venture Builder Incubator is delivered by the Bayes Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s Innovation Hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the commercialisation service of the University. It is delivered on behalf of the University’s Data-Driven Innovation Hubs, in contribution to the Data-Driven Entrepreneurship programme.

Through a tailored programme of interactive online workshops and events researchers become founders who are encouraged to connect their data-driven ideas to the world and to explore investment opportunities. This is the fourth programme and it builds on the achievements of the previous cohorts which have seen considerable success.

Join Geovation Scotland’s 2024 Showcase, to celebrate and learn more about the companies graduating from their fifth cohort of innovative Location, Land and Property technology start ups.

Over the last nine months, the start ups have been working closely with Geovation to refine their propositions, develop solutions and prepare for future growth. At this annual showcase you will get the opportunity to hear from each of the companies as they present their businesses and talk about their plans for the future, with questions from our panel of industry experts.

After the presentations there will be an expo where you will get the chance to network and speak directly with the teams, who will also joined by a small selection of alumni and entrepeneurs-in-residence.

The companies from the 5th cohort of Geovation Scotland accelerator programme include:

• Marked: WAYFINDING SOLUTIONS
• Make Your Path
• Mortar io
• Rethink Carbon
• Unbaggaged

A“Cane to Cask” rum producer with a commitment to sustainability and a focus on high-quality raw materials, Matugga aims to leave an indelible mark on the international drinks marketplace.

Background

Husband and wife team, Paul and Jacine Rutasikwa, co-founded the Matugga Distillery in 2018, and were one of the first in the UK to produce rum from scratch. Based in Livingston the Matugga Distillery produces a multi-award-winning range of handcrafted spirits with distinctive character and flavours which are distributed across the UK and Europe.

The company is also developing a sugar cane estate on family land in Uganda that will employ and train local agricultural workers. By harvesting cane from its family land and converting it into high quality distilling molasses the company will become a “Cane to Cask” rum producer. With a commitment to sustainability and a focus on high-quality raw materials, Matugga aims to leave an indelible mark on the international drinks marketplace.

Matugga’s initiatives detailed below, supported by Interface’s introductions to academia and various funds, showcase the distillery’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility.

The Challenge – Pot Ale Utilisation

A pressing issue for Matugga is the management of liquid by-products, a challenge since their inception in 2018. Facing escalating disposal costs and a potential surge in liquid volume due to expansion plans, Matugga partnered with Heriot-Watt University. Through the Food & Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund, they explored sustainable alternatives for pot ale, including potential uses in animal feed and biogas, offering additional income streams.

The Solution

Heriot-Watt University’s research looked into characterizing Matugga’s pot ale, proposing solutions that added value while considering the environmental impact. The exploration encompassed biogas, feed/food applications, and new product feedstock potential. The goal was to create a sustainable value chain for pot ale, akin to Scotch whisky distillers.

The research led by Heriot-Watt University provides Matugga with a sustainable solution for pot ale, aligning with their commitment to environmental responsibility. This breakthrough has far-reaching implications for both Matugga and the wider Scottish rum distillery community.

The Benefits

A potential path has been identified which can enable Matugga to return their pot ale into the value chain similar to how Scotch whisky distillers can, ensuring sustainability.

This not only benefits Matugga’s expansion plans but also holds promise for other current and future Scottish rum distilleries.

Overall Impact

Interface have been instrumental in assisting Matugga Distillers with several other research and development opportunities which include:

• A major collaborative project with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), supported by the Healthier Products Innovation Fund.
• A group project with University of Edinburgh MBA students to look at strategic marketing of spirits for a younger generation.
• A collaboration with Queen Margaret University centred around diversifying their rum portfolio and offerings, funded by an Innovation Voucher.

Matugga’s initiatives, supported by Interface’s introductions to academia and various funds, showcase the distillery’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility.

Matugga Distillery’s journey is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and sustainability in the spirits industry. Through strategic partnerships and leveraging Interface’s support, Matugga has not only overcome challenges but has emerged as a leader, setting new standards for environmentally conscious and socially responsible distilleries in the UK.

The Net Zero Food & Drink Challenge Fund

The Net Zero Food & Drink Challenge Fund was launched in FY2022/23 by Interface and the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership to support businesses to accelerate their journey towards Net Zero utilising the knowledge base across Scottish Academia. It funded 17 projects of up to £10k each.

Projects were carried out between businesses and academia to improve their environmental credentials through the sustainable measures and learnings taken as a result of their projects. Type of impacts have varied from CO2 Capture, CO2 reduction, Energy Reduction and renewable energy benefits, alternative uses and adding value to waste, and sustainable farming techniques.

The call for action to address diet related illness has never been stronger. But what can Scottish food and drink manufacturers do to play their part? And how might policy and consumer demand shape that action?

With change on the horizon, we want Scottish SME manufacturers to be ready.

This showcase event at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, brought to you by the Food and Drink Federation Scotland and Interface is bringing together the industry experts who can answer these questions, and help manufacturers make informed decisions about reformulation. Know what industry support is available, decide which consumer trends and policies will fit with your brand, and learn about the options for reformulation from ingredient experts.

The speaker line-up includes:

• Jenni Minto MSP, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health
• Gary Maclean, Scotland’s National Chef
• Lesley Ann Gray, Kantar
• Stephen Leishman, Forrest Brown
• Panel discussions chaired by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne
• Catriona Liddle & Caitlin Macvicar, Queen Margaret University
• Dr John Wilkin, Abertay University
• Morag Hamilton & Alistair Trail, SRUC
• Ioannis Stasinopolous, Prozymi Labs
• Amy Glass, Food and Drink Federation
• Joanne Burns, Reformulation for Health
• Howell Davies, Interface
• Martin Peel, Growers Garden
• Katherine Wernsen-Towler, Simon Howie Foods
• James Ambler, Ulrick & Short
• Dzeti Tait, Saltsmith
• Sam Bambrough, Healy Group

You will hear from some of these funded projects as well as the latest consumer trends and policy insights. There will also be time over coffee and lunch to meet exhibitors and network with other companies currently looking at similar opportunities and challenges.

The Reformulation for Health team hosted by FDF Scotland enable and support activity to get healthier, reformulated products on to the dinner table. Interface connect businesses with academia and the two organisations have developed and delivered a range of funds focused on creating healthier products in line with public health targets.

There’s still time to register for next week’s event please contact nicola.brooks@interface-online.org.uk

The Bayes Centre Forum series is intended to create the opportunity for Members & Partners of the Bayes Centre, the wider University community and external business guests to interact, share experiences and explore multi-disciplinary AI and data science research collaboration opportunities.

November’s Forum will provide a quarterly overview of the University of Edinburgh activities in data science and AI and how the Bayes Centre supports the adoption and translation of data science and AI technologies for businesses and organisations.

Speakers include:

• Ruth King, Director of the Bayes Centre
• Emily Lekkas, Business Development Manager, Bayes Centre
• Anne Robertson, Head of Business Development & Sales, EDINA Services
• Sohan Seth, Lead Data Scientist, School of Informatics
• Chris Dent, Director of the Statistics Consultancy Unit
• Julien Sindt, Commercial Manager, EPCC
• Simon Chapple, Head of Data Technology, DDI IoT Programme

Please note, this event will be online only, a Zoom link will be sent to your email prior to the event.

Danu Robotics is developing a revolutionary robotic waste sorting system to help the waste management industry significantly increase their productivity, prevent valuable resources going into landfill, boost the circular economy and clean up the environment.

Background

The world generates 3 billion tonnes of domestic solid waste annually, less than 10% of it is recycled. Worldwide, recycling sites require human intervention to pick out contaminants, which can pose health risks and is extremely inefficient.

Xiaoyan Ma founder of Edinburgh-based, clean tech company Danu Robotics, has combined her expertise in high performance computing (HPC) with her passion for the environment to revolutionise the efficiency of the recycling sector by developing an AI-powered, robotic sorting system.

She explained: “I have been a committed environmentalist since I was a teenager and always recycled my household waste, but I’d never thought about where it ended up. So, a couple of years ago, while I was studying, I decided to look into the whole process, and I was shocked at how inefficient it was.”

The Challenge

As a team of one, Xiaoyan needed help in identifying additional resources to support the development of the robotic solution. She required both experts in robotics and hardware development. She also called for help with software development and computer vision expertise. Experts in advanced data analytics and image recognition capability, would help develop a more accurate machine learning algorithm and object classification to enable the robotic system to differentiate between recyclable materials and general waste.

Following an introduction from John Hill, her student enterprise advisor at Edinburgh Innovations, Interface made several connections to different academic teams to support Danu Robotics on their journey of development.

The Solution

Interface connected Danu Robotics into the Design Manufacturing & Engineering Management (DMEM) department, at the University of Strathclyde. The DMEM students undertook a six-month project researching and developing the robotic picker equipped with a camera to identify objects and an appropriate algorithm to instruct the picker to pick out the recyclables and place them in a designated area. The robotic picker needed to meet predefined performance requirements, and in addition, the solution had to be durable, recyclable/sustainable, affordable, portable and re-programmable. Several options were considered to design robotic pickers that were fit for purpose ranging from, a custom solution where the robotic picker uses a suction and release mechanism rather than grab and release, to the modification of an off-the-shelf robot arm/picker to the combination of hard robot and soft robot.

In conjunction to this project, Interface also connected Danu Robotics into EPCC at the University of Edinburgh to develop software for identification and classification of objects and to define suitable hardware, including sensors and cameras, for the robotic picker.

The software development phase required development of a machine learning algorithm that takes image data and sensor data to differentiate recyclables from the general waste. The company had to build up a waste image database to help the system identify contaminants, the collection of the image data was supported by Glasgow City Council. Each item in this visual database was then labelled by a specialist data processing company and the updated database used to ‘train’ the machine learning algorithm to identify what can and cannot be recycled.

With initial system training complete, the software required further development to direct the robotic sorting system to remove contaminants from a moving conveyor belt as efficiently and effectively as possible. Working with EPCC’s Cirrus supercomputer resources, accelerated the development of the project, with two months of lab tests to integrate the software with the robotic hardware, followed by a three-month trial of the prototype system at Glasgow City Council’s recycling centre.

The initial collaboration with EPCC was funded by a SFC Innovation Voucher, then EU Horizon 2020 (H2020) funding which in turn helped leverage £70K in a SMART Scotland grant. They have recently secured SFC Advanced Innovation Voucher funding to continue development work with EPCC.

Other opportunities which Interface have been instrumental in assisting Danu Robotics with include:

• An MSc project for a design engineering student from Heriot Watt University interested in robotic design and kinematics to design a robotic arm that can sort waste items quickly and lift loads of up to 20kg while the entire arm assembly is moving at high speeds. An optimal design needed to consider the harsh dirty and dusty operating environment and the high speeds that the assembly needed to work in. The project provided an opportunity to produce an innovative and challenging piece of academic research, but also engagement in industrial research and product development.
• Another MSc opportunity with DMEM students at the University of Strathclyde involved the development of a control system for the waste sorting robot. Students interested in control systems, kinematics, and industrial design worked to identify a closed loop control system best suited for application in a heavy industrial robotic waste sorting system.
• A further project is underway with Design Engineering students at Heriot Watt University looking at the design and development of prototype of a new emergency stop system which needs to be designed to bring the mass to a stop in a safe manner. The robotic system uses a belt drive system driven by an industrial servo motor with no service break and currently relies on the frictional losses present to come to a stop in case of an emergency or loss of motor torque.

The Benefits

• In September 2023, Danu Robotics joined the prestigious Octopus Ventures Springboard programme and CEO Xiaoyan Ma gave a keynote at the Carbon13 conference.

The Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) supports life scientists from across the breadth of life sciences research from animal, human, microbe and plant research. This two day conference is open to students and staff from within the 13 SULSA members as well as external partners in the private and public sector and will focus on industry engagement, for both collaborative R&D and employability.

Day one will focus on industry-academia collaboration with ample opportunities to network with commercially minded academics, industry open to collaboration and organisations that can support.

Day two will focus on employability and skills development and run similar to a recruitment fair providing the chance for talented and proactive undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff to network with life sciences employers.

Interface Director Amelia Whitelaw will be speaking on Day 1 on Bringing the Right People Together Across Industry and Academia and we will also be exhibiting, we look forward to seeing you there.

All information can be found here.

Data Summit is Scotland’s celebration of innovation, data, and AI. We’ll welcome thought leaders from around the world to tackle some of the biggest questions humanity faces today. Our interactive and bustling exhibition area is an excellent opportunity to connect with visionaries, experts, and enthusiasts alike.

Please join Interface in attending and visit our exhibition stand.

All event details on keynotes, panel discussions, full agenda and ticket booking can be found here.

On 31st August at the GRID at Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh an event is taking place to signpost some of the support available locally within Edinburgh to help businesses to unlock growth and success. Discover how the National Library of Scotland, Interface, Edinburgh College and Universities (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University and Heriot-Watt University) can help, from upskilling, to collaborative funding.

This event is a one-of-a-kind platform where businesses of all shapes and sizes can come together with representatives from renowned universities and stakeholders within the city. This event aims to showcase the valuable resources and expertise available in Edinburgh to businesses, enabling them to thrive in an ever-evolving market landscape.

During this event attendees will also be able to enjoy refreshments and a light breakfast, with ample time dedicated to networking.

Agenda

9.00 Registration & breakfast (tea, coffee, pastries)

9.30 Welcome (HWU) and (ECC)

9.42 Second presentation (National Library)

9.49 Third presentation (University Representative)

9.56 Fourth presentation (Edinburgh College)

10.03 Fifth presentation (Interface)

10.10 Closing Remarks

10.12 Networking

10.30 Close

Louise Arnold of our Business Engagement Team will be presenting on the day on how Interface can help businesses innovate and collaborate.