Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) celebrates an incredible milestone: 50 years of driving innovation and collaboration.

As part of this impressive landmark anniversary, they announced the launch of the 2025 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Awards.

Applications opened on 17 Feb 2025, and the KTP team is hosting an exclusive Q&A session to guide applicants through the process and answer any questions you may have to ensure you have the tools to create a winning application.

Date: Thurs, 6 March 2025
Time: 11:30 am – 12:00 pm

Join the 2025 Women in Tourism conference at the EICC in Edinburgh on Friday 21 March for an afternoon of inspirational speakers, panel discussions and networking.

The conference will discuss a range of topics such as tourism as a career of choice, leadership in a changing world, innovation and resilience, and the power of your networks. The day will begin at 12:00 with a networking lunch, followed by a range of inspiring and thought-provoking sessions, before the day concludes with a networking drinks reception.

Speakers include:

• Julie Grieve, Founder & Chair
• Julie Pearson, Head of Events, Glasgow Life
• Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO, UKHospitality
• Kelly Johnstone, COO, Springboard
• Lauren Robertson, Director of Marketing, W Edinburgh
• Lesley Judge, Strategic Programmes Executive, Interface
• Louise Clelland, Customer Services, Royal Yacht Britannia
• Rosemary McLennan, Managing Director, Scottish PA Network
• Sheila Gilmore, CEO, VisitArran
• Shona McCarthy Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society
• Synden Grieve, Program Manager, Expedia Group
• Vicki Miller, CEO, VisitScotland
• Victoria Erasmus, Owner, Glen Mhor Hotel & Uile-bheist Distillery

AGENDA FOR CONFERENCE:

12.00 pm Registration, networking and lunch

1.30 pm Welcome from conference host Amanda Wrathall (EICC)

1.45 pm Keynote speaker: Kate Nicholls OBE, UKHospitality

2.15 pm Panel discussion – innovation and resilience

2.45 pm Panel discussion – work/life balance and ‘doing it all’

3.15 pm Coffee break + networking

3.45 pm Panel discussion – tourism as a career of choice

4.15 pm Panel discussion – Leadership in a changing world

4.45 pm Panel discussion – The power of your networks: 10 years of WIT

5.30 pm Closing remarks followed by evening drinks reception in Platform 5

7.30 pm Close of conference

Lesley Judge, Strategic Programmes Executive, at Interface will participate in the power of your networks panel discussion.

Showcasing emerging tech innovations and companies from Scotland’s world class universities.
Hosted by the University of Edinburgh, EIE25 presents the leading spinouts, startups, and scaleups from Scotland’s top universities, all focused on tackling global challenges.

Working with key ecosystem partners, EIE25 will showcase startups and scaleups at the forefront of Scottish tech innovation.

Gain valuable insights into emerging technologies and connect with pioneering companies shaping the future.

Co-hosted with the Tech Tour Growth Deeptech event, EIE25 provides a premier networking platform for global investors to explore impactful opportunities and engage with Scotland’s vibrant innovation ecosystem.

Louise Arnold of Interface will be attending this event.

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

• The insights and methodologies gained from this project have equipped Serene with a solid foundation to build their models and introduce them to the market with greater confidence.
• Proved the concept for developing financial data-driven interventions to support vulnerable consumers.
• The outcomes of this project will help Serene attract and invest in top talent, unlock access to anonymised real longitudinal financial data and in turn develop a cutting-edge solution and gain a competitive edge in the market.
• Without Inward Investment Catalyst Funding Serene would not have had the resources to secure Dr Lukas’s time and leverage his extensive experience and expertise.
• The project demonstrates successful knowledge transfer from academic research to industrial application, particularly in translating theoretical understanding of financial behaviour patterns into practical vulnerability detection tools

Academic Benefits

• The collaboration with Serene has provided valuable real-world validation of theoretical frameworks developed through academic research. Dr Lukas’s research into financial vulnerability detection has been enriched by insights from this industrial application, leading to new research directions in behavioural finance and financial technology.
• The project has also strengthened the University of St Andrews’ position as a leader in applying financial research to solve pressing societal challenges.

The Next Steps

• Serene aim to implement the results of this project by developing an Application Programming Interface (API) that will be accessible to financial institutions.
• Through this API, customer accounts at these institutions will be analysed by the Serene solution and will provide indications if any vulnerabilities are detected in the customer accounts analysed.
• Using the API, financial institutions can integrate it into their systems and proactively identify potential vulnerabilities or risks associated with their customers’ accounts. This will enable them to take appropriate actions to mitigate risks and safeguard their customers’ financial well-being.
• Explore further opportunities for collaboration with Dr Marcel Lukas
• Advance Serene’s analytics capabilities.

Online Workshop supporting food and drink businesses at the start of their journey and considering engaging with retail, wholesale and large customers.

Delegates will benefit from insight into the practicalities of trading with larger customers and some of the tactics to set them up for maximum efficiency, profitability and success. Often, we focus on securing the sale with the customer but what comes next and how can we sustain these relationships for the long term?

Larger operators are often reluctant to trade with small businesses, perceiving them as lacking infrastructure and resource to trade efficiently. This workshop will help navigate and simplify these early interactions, instilling confidence in both customer and supplier.

This session is designed for SME’s who are not currently trading with or who are considering trading with larger customers. Key takeaways will involve.

· How to manage and exceed customer expectation

· Ensure your business is easy to trade with

· Efficiencies in supply chain and dispatch to simplify trading

· An understanding of possible compliance requirements mandated by larger customers

· Practical tips for sustainably scaling up and meeting growing demand.

Fintech Scotland Festival will take place between 25 September 2024 and 04 October 2024 across Scotland.

The festival will contain conferences, meet-ups, morning breakfast sessions, evening networking events including:

Fintech Summit , 25 September, Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh

Scottish Financial Technology Awards, 25 September, The Sheraton Hotel, Edinburgh

Financial Regulation Innovation, 26 September, Barclays Campus, Glasgow

Payment Innovation, 27 September, Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart Campus

Scaling Your Fintech, 1 October

Data Innovation, 3 October, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Futures Institute

For more information on the Fintech Scotland Festival and other fringe events click below.

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:

• find out more about the opportunities, funding and training available to you to create impact from your research
• become a future impact leader
• network with like-minded researchers from five Scottish universities with EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs)

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

This workshop, hosted by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions, and Cities (CFE), is part of a series of activities aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of how regional and local governments from OECD member countries are implementing more effective rural policies, leading to improved quality of life and contributing to a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future.

Presenters will share different perspectives on the path to economic resilience in rural communities, along with examples of successful initiatives.

Over the next couple of months, SDS are running a series of employer webinars providing information and advice on topics such as workforce planning and development, talent attraction, skills for a changing landscape and workplace culture and wellbeing as follows:

14 February, 11am – Talent Attraction
20 February, 11am – Wellbeing at Work: Key Management Skills for a Thriving Workforce
6 March, 12.30pm – Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
12 March, 11am – Joyful Workspaces: Mastering Skills for Cultivating Workplace Happiness
20 March, 12.30pm – Skills for a Changing Landscape
27 March, 11am – Workforce Development

For more information on all SDS webinars and how to register go here.