Scaling Solutions: A Viable Path to a Sustainable Future

The UK’s biggest festival for a zero-carbon built environment will play host to transformative discussion and knowledge exchange on breaking through barriers to accelerate our journey to net zero carbon.

The built environment accounts for approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. Energy costs are rising, supply chains are under pressure and the skill shortage continues to grow. The demand for solutions isn’t just about climate, it’s about economic survival.

With this going on in the background, is net zero really achievable? Some argue the costs are too high, the technology isn’t ready and that other priorities should come first. At BE-ST Fest 2025, we tackle these debates head on.

This isn’t a conference made up of hopeful visions alone, it’s about the reality of real change, the risks, trade-offs, and the strategies that actually work. This is a space for honesty, collaboration and innovation. Not idealism for its own sake but progress grounded in what works.

A full day event designed to equip delegates with the insights, strategies, and connections needed to transform pioneering ideas into impactful healthcare solutions – delivering real-world value within the NHS and on a global stage.

The programme will feature expert-led sessions on how to shape, position, and scale healthcare innovations for maximum adoption and success. Interactive panels will delve into the challenges, opportunities, and success stories, offering valuable insights and practical takeaways.

A highlight of the programme will be a keynote address from Sir Tony Kouzarides, who will share his perspective on how groundbreaking ideas and collaborative innovation can drive meaningful change in healthcare.

We’re also excited to bring back our poster competition, showcasing cutting-edge research from early career researchers at the forefront of digital health, AI, precision medicine, and more – opening doors for potential collaboration and partnership.

Whether you’re a healthcare professional, researcher, innovator, or industry partner, this is a unique opportunity to connect, share ideas, and be part of the conversation driving healthcare transformation both locally and globally.

Sentiental Limited & University of Strathclyde – A Powerful Partnership

Introduction

In 2018, a connection brokered by Interface set in motion a transformative collaboration between Welbot Ltd and the University of Strathclyde. What began as a project about workplace wellbeing, has evolved into a long-term, strategic partnership, resulting in a newly formed company Sentiential Limited (trading as Sentinel), that is tackling some of the most pressing health challenges faced by frontline workers today.

This case study explores how the partnership has grown, the critical role of Interface in connecting business with academia, and the significant impact of co-created innovation.

The Challenge

Welbot was established to address growing concerns around workplace wellbeing. Early efforts focused on reducing sedentary behaviour and supporting staff health through Welbot, a digital desktop tool.

However, by 2022, it was clear that an even greater challenge was emerging: the escalating mental health crisis among frontline workers, including emergency services and healthcare professionals. These groups face trauma, chronic stress, and burnout, yet often lack accessible and stigma-free support. Thus, Sentinel was formed and, together with University of Strathclyde, they bring together technology, commercial, and scientific expertise to help employees understand and manage trauma.

The Role of Interface

The partnership might never have begun without Interface’s facilitation. By linking Welbot with University of Strathclyde’s academic expertise, Interface enabled the business to access specialist researchers in trauma, psychology, and workplace health. Interface’s support also unlocked early funding opportunities, including an Innovation Voucher, which laid the foundations for further collaborative projects.

This first connection was pivotal leading to the formation of a new company, the exploration of new opportunities, industry applications and funding opportunities. It transformed what could have been a one-off project into a long term, multi-faceted partnership delivering real-world impact.

The Journey

Early Collaboration – Welbot (2018–2020)

• Developed through Interface’s connections with specialist academics at University of Strathclyde providing expertise in sedentary behaviour and health.
• Piloted with student involvement and supported by early-stage innovation funding.
• Resulted in a digital wellbeing tool adopted by over 100 companies in 10 countries.
• Produced peer-reviewed publications and established trust between Welbot and University of Strathclyde.

Evolution into Sentinel (2022–present)

• Shifted focus to workplace trauma and resilience for first responders.
• Co-created with NHS partners, emergency services, and frontline staff to ensure user-centred design.
• Developed 64 evidence-based modules forming the backbone of Sentinel’s AI-powered trauma support app.
• App now available on Google and Apple stores, piloted with NHS24, NHS Lanarkshire, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Research, Innovation & Global Expansion

• Collaboration with University of Strathclyde’s Computer & Information Sciences Department led to:
• A Personalisation Engine for tailoring trauma support.
• A Trauma Conversation Simulator for training.
• Secured multiple funding streams, including Stage Gate funding (University of Strathclyde’s framework used to support commercialisation) and a SMART Scotland Scottish Enterprise award and exploring additional further grants.
• International collaborations established with partners in Saudi Arabia, US, Ukraine, and South Africa, broadening Sentinel’s reach.

Benefits and Impact

Impact on Sentinel

• Commercial Growth – Developed a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), now piloted across major NHS organisations.
• Credibility & Recruitment – Academic backing attracted top talent and partners.
• Market Expansion – Positioned for growth into emergency services, military, and global healthcare sectors.
• Future Impact – Forecast to grow from 3.5 FTE to 20 FTE within 5 years, with total workforce scaling from ~10 to ~100.

Impact on University of Strathclyde

• Teaching & Learning: Provided students with live industry projects and industry funded postgraduate opportunities, enriching courses in psychology, health, and technology.
• Research Outputs: Generated peer-reviewed publications and enhanced reputation in trauma-informed digital health.
• Funding & Engagement: Leveraged SFC innovation voucher funding to explore feasibility which catalysed the partnership leading to multiple UKRI bids, international collaborations, and income-generation opportunities.
• Public Engagement: Raised University of Strathclyde’s profile through media, conferences, and community initiatives centred on frontline worker wellbeing.
• Awards and Recognition: Members of team were recognised at the Strathclyde Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Impact Awards, which recognise outstanding achievements and contributions in research and knowledge exchange at the University of Strathclyde.

A Model for Business–Academic Collaboration

“The Sentinel–University of Strathclyde partnership is an exemplar of what Interface set out to achieve: turning an initial connection into a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. The collaboration demonstrates that when businesses and academics work closely together, supported by effective brokerage and relationship management, the results extend far beyond individual projects -creating solutions that deliver societal, economic, and international impact.”
Louise Arnold, Senior Innovation Lead, Interface

From tackling sedentary behaviour in office settings to pioneering digital trauma support for frontline workers, the journey of Sentinel and the University of Strathclyde is a testament to the power of strategic, co-created partnerships.

With Interface’s facilitation, this collaboration has:

• Transformed early innovation into a global health solution.
• Strengthened Scotland’s position as a leader in digital health and wellbeing.
• Created a sustainable model of business–academic partnership that continues to grow in scale and impact.

The Sentinel – University of Strathclyde journey showcases how enduring partnerships between academia and business can change lives – locally, nationally, and globally.

Glasgow has long been a powerhouse of industrial ingenuity. Once dubbed the “Second City of the Empire,” it earned global recognition for engineering excellence—home to world-class shipyards, locomotive manufacturers, and heavy industries that shaped the modern age. The River Clyde launched some of the world’s most iconic vessels, while inventors like James Watt powered the Industrial Revolution and laid the foundations for global mobility.

Today, that same spirit of innovation is driving a new revolution—this time towards a cleaner, smarter, net-zero future. As part of the #Glasgow850 celebrations, this special edition of award-winning Art of Possible series will explore how Glasgow City Region’s legacy of industrial ingenuity is powering a new era of clean, smart and sustainable transport.

Join a panel of innovators to explore how emerging technologies are redefining mobility and logistics—making systems smarter and more sustainable. The event will spotlight cutting-edge innovations in green transport and delve into the infrastructure, investment and cross-sector collaboration needed to scale them.

Speakers Include:

• Dr. Stephen Breslin – Chief Executive, Glasgow Science Centre
• Dr. Duncan Booker – Group Manager (Green Economy, Innovation & International), Glasgow City Council (Chair)
• Dr. Mahmoud Wagih – University of Glasgow & Founder at RX Watt Ltd
• More speakers to be confirmed soon
  

Now in its 8th year, this award-winning series connects innovators, creatives, and industry leaders to explore how unexpected tech collaborations drive new ideas and solutions. It’s also an official primer for Scotland’s CAN DO Innovation Summit.

The Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) IndAc25 Conference is a dynamic two-day conference and careers fair bringing together life sciences industry and academia to explore the latest in industry-academia collaboration, commercialisation, and career development.

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

Day two focuses 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 are taking part in a panel session and have an exhibition stand, so drop by and meet Shelley Breckenridge, Jackie Sanderson and Gillian Hambley.

Aligning Research with Real-World Impact

Life Sciences Partnerships Day on Wednesday 1st October 2025 will be a day of connection, collaboration and innovation bringing together academic researchers, funders, industry and other external organisations to explore how the University of Glasgow’s life sciences expertise can help tackle real-world challenges.

This event is designed to create space for meaningful engagement between Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (MVLS) researchers and external organisations. Through a combination of keynote talks, industry-led pitches, collaborative workshops, and networking opportunities, the day aims to:

• Showcase MVLS research strengths and ambitions
• Identify opportunities for collaborative problem-solving
• Facilitate conversations around funding, skills development, and translational impact
• Build lasting partnerships to address key societal challenges with a focus on human and animal health, life sciences, and the environment
  

Meet Interface’s Gillian Hambley and Jackie Sanderson at this event.

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.

Accelerate your HealthTech solution with University of Glasgow’s Evidence Generation Bootcamp!

Building on the success of the inaugural bootcamp last year, the Digital Health Validation Lab is hosting its second edition on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd of October. This two-day, hands-on event is designed for HealthTech innovators who are ready to accelerate their solutions and drive real-world impact.

In today’s fast-moving and competitive HealthTech landscape, robust evidence is critical to achieving regulatory approval, adoption, scale, and long-term success. This bootcamp provides a practical framework to help you confidently navigate the complexities of evidence generation and build a clear, actionable strategy aligned with your innovation and route to market.

Through expert-led sessions, you’ll gain:

• Clarity on your evidence requirements and how to address them effectively
• Confidence to engage key stakeholders with timely, relevant evidence and navigate complex evidence demands
• A personalised roadmap for evidence generation, tailored to your solution and market strategy
• Improved understanding of approaches to: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI); concept validation; health economic modelling; simulation; technical feasibility and AI performance testing; clinical investigations for regulatory approval; and clinical and cost-effectiveness studies to support adoption.

Who should attend?

HealthTech startups, SMEs, innovation leads, and academic researchers ready to turn a great solution into an evidence-backed, scalable success.

Headline speakers include:

Professor Olivia Wu is a globally recognised authority in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). She holds the prestigious William R Lindsay Chair of Health Economics at the University of Glasgow’s HEHTA and serves as Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Mahidol University in Thailand.

Professor Neil Hawkins is a Professor of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) at the University of Glasgow, where he brings decades of cross-sector experience to advancing evidence-based healthcare decision-making. His career spans academia, industry, and consultancy, with contributions across pharmacology, clinical development, epidemiology, and HTA.

Professor David Lowe is an Emergency Consultant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), Clinical Director of Innovation at the University of Glasgow, and Clinical Director for Health Innovation for the Scottish Government.

Ticket Price

£295.00 – Early Bird Rate (until 15 August 2025)

£350.00 – Standard Rate (from 16 August 2025)

Please note that registration will close on Friday 19 September.

Airglove innovative healthcare products disrupting the Peripheral Arterial Disease treatment market, improving patient care and leading to clinical efficiency.

Background

Airglove Medical Ltd is a Scottish medical innovations company based in East Kilbride, Scotland. The company was started in July 2016 formerly known as Green Cross Medico Ltd, with Chairman Giovanni (Gio) Benedetti, a serial entrepreneur, the driving force behind the company. They operate with a lean structure, focusing on innovation and collaboration with healthcare institutions.

The company specialises in developing and commercialising healthcare products aimed at improving patient care and clinical efficiency. Their flagship product, Airglove, is a patient warming system designed to facilitate intravenous access by gently warming the patient’s lower arm through an inflatable double walled glove which is thermally regulated, thus making veins more accessible for cannulation.

They developed Airglove Arm (first generation), a thermal vasodilatory, CE certified device designed to facilitate cannulation of the peripheral veins in difficult intravenous access patients (DIVA).  Airglove technology provides a safe, convenient and effective way of vasodilation treatment for DIVA patients, but Airglove Medical also recognised that their unique technology could be revolutionary for people who suffer from Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD).

200M people globally suffer from Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) with 716,817 over 55’s in the UK with symptomatic PAD costing on average £23,502 per patient, per year (NICE). This is a common condition where a build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries restricts blood supply to the leg muscles and is treated by diet, reducing weight, reducing alcohol and exercise. However, in the UK every year there are 72,000 angioplasties, 18,000 lower limb bypasses and 3,500 amputations.

Current self-care therapy for PAD is walking therapy, which is difficult for people with moderate-to-severe PAD. Independent exploratory research indicates that gentle heat therapy delivers significant PAD benefits.

The Challenge

Airglove Medical required academic expertise to help develop a second generation Airglove, delivering two distinct units: Airglove LEG for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) treatment and Airglove ARM for Difficult Intravenous Access (DIVA) treatment to be used in both the UK and globally.

The Solution

Expertise was required in the areas of product design, electronics, electrical engineering and biomedical devices, due to the company’s lack of knowledge in these areas.  Jackie Sanderson of Interface connected Airglove Medical with Edinburgh Napier University as they had the necessary expertise and background IP in product, biomedical devices, electronics, electrical and power electronics designs.

Working in partnership with Professor Chan Hwang See and the specialist academic team at Edinburgh Napier University the aim was to develop the first PAD prototype of Airglove LEG (with cradle resting unit).

Two new improved versions of the practical prototype of Airglove LEG resting unit (“Cradle”) were designed, built and tested at Edinburgh Napier’s in-house facility.

Several heat transfer measurements of the Airglove LEG unit were setup and carried out with good indication of thermal distribution on the human leg and by testing the power handling performance of the Airglove ARM unit, the results suggested that the existing 300W motor would suffice for the new Airglove LEG unit, leading to the development of a simulated electronic prototype for the Airglove unit.

Four students, three final year undergraduate students and one MSc student were involved in the product design including Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing and prototyping, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design and testing, electrical engineering as well as contributing to the medical device and signal processing of the product.

The students proposed new electronics features, i.e. remote control, battery power, new sensors, smart control unit and wireless connectivity of the device, for the future advanced model of the Airglove unit.

The project was funded through a Standard Innovation Voucher and Advanced Innovation Voucher.

The Benefits

• Redesigning Airglove for the PAD market will be a disrupter, improving PAD treatment outcomes, increasing patient mobility, minimising leg amputations, and delivering cost savings for the NHS.
• Development of Airglove technology for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) opens up a significantly larger market for Airglove Medical Ltd both in the UK and internationally.
• Airglove LEG supports the UK Government’s Healthy Ageing Grand Challenge and the NHS backlog reduction focussed on “New treatments and diagnostic and streamlined surgical methods believed to result in more patients being seen to quickly and safely”.
• Airglove technology has earned Airglove Medical Ltd several awards including the Seal of Excellence from the European Commission (2019), Runner-Up in the Medilink West Midlands Medical & Healthcare Business Awards for Partnership with the NHS (2018), shortlisted in the Medilink North Medical & Healthcare Business Awards for Partnership with the NHS (2025) and a finalist for Innovation of the Year at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards (2024).

Academic Benefits

• Four students, three final year undergraduate students and one MSc student, involved in this project, have gained good industrial experience. They will be able to use the transferable skills and knowledge gained in product design, electronics circuit design, presentation, and communication skills from this project for their future career.
• Applying the academic knowledge to new products designed for commercially established markets will deliver impact on accelerated timescales raising the profile and demonstrating the strengths of the university and its scope for further industrial collaboration.
• The knowledge generated through this project will support future funding applications, inform several final-year and MSc student projects, and contribute to teaching materials—helping to equip the next generation of engineers with up-to-date, industry-relevant expertise.

The Next Steps

• The Airglove LEG working prototype is to be used in the Human Factors Research and 1st Phase patient service evaluation trials in conjunction with Professor Philip Stather, Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon, Norfolk & Norwich University hospital.
• An Innovate UK Fast Start Grant of £50K was secured to help further develop a new product, Airglove mobile. Airglove Medical Ltd are looking at other funding resources such as innovate UK, KTP etc. to continue to develop the advanced features of the Airglove unit.
• Airglove Medical Ltd aim to apply for a Scottish Enterprise SMART Grant to continue the Airglove project and develop the Airglove unit for both the arm and the leg with AI technology.
• Several BEng and MSc projects to be set up.