Applied Knowledge Exchange

The Scottish Funding Council has issued a new call for proposals to its Horizon Fund for knowledge exchange proposals addressing the needs of Scottish industry.

Resources available for projects in the latest call will be approximately £4m per annum for three years.

This year the call will focus on the key sectors identified in the Scottish Government’s Economic Strategy, including the creative industries (including digital content and technologies); energy; financial and business services; food and drink (including agriculture and fisheries);  life sciences (including biotechnology and translational medicine); and tourism.

The SFC is keen to receive proposals for projects that involve Scottish small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Proposals are to be submitted by Universities by 17th September 2010.

Glasgow Caledonian University has also benefited from this year’s Scottish Funding Council’s Innovation Voucher Scheme, which aids first links between Scottish universities and SMEs. This year, GCU received funding for six proposals, worth over £48,500.

The scheme, administered by Interface, provides funding of up to £5,000 to universities for projects with Scottish SMEs. SMEs contribute a matching value of cash, staff time or access to facilities. The funding can be used for a broad range of collaborative activities including developing new products and services, improved production processes or experimental testing and measuring.

For more information on how your business could work with Glasgow Caledonian University, contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange on 0141 331 3189 or visit www.gcu.ac.uk/business

AGRICO UK is working with Glasgow Caledonian University on a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP).

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is Europe’s leading programme, helping business to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. 

With the help of Glasgow Caledonian University’s food science experts in the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Agrico aims to introduce laboratory techniques to support the development of novel potato genotypes with specific nutritional properties.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange can help your business with a Knowledge Transfer Partnership – give us a call to find out more on 0141 331 3189 or visit www.gcu.ac.uk/business

Scotland’s first Zero Waste Plan has been published by the Scottish Government, setting out key actions, including new targets, to tackle the near 20 milion tonnes of waste produced by Scotland every year

It aims to drive change and inspire households, businesses, community groups, local authorities and the wider public sector to change the way they view and deal with waste.

The plan will introduce landfill bans for specific waste types, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and capturing their value; separate collections of specific waste types, including food (to avoid contaminating other materials), to increase reuse and recycling opportunities and contributing to the Scottish Government’s renewable energy targets; and new targets that will apply to all waste: 70 per cent target recycled, and maximum five per cent sent to landfill, both by 2025.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s Caledonian Environment Centre works closely with private sector organisations and Scotlands’ councils to reduce waste. Find out more about our work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/business/clientscasestudies/casestudies/

The Scottish Funding Council made an award of funding to Glasgow Caledonian University to directly support collaboration between Scottish small and medium sized enterprises and higher education institutions.

The Innovation Voucher Scheme is supported by the new SFC funding stream Strategic Priority Investments in Research and Innovation Translation (SPIRIT) and offers each higher education institution funding to meet up to 50% of the costs of one or more new collaborations with Scottish SMEs.

Glasgow Caledonian University is working on projects with Oak Tree Inn, Q&Q Foods, William Latto & Son and Cordale Housing through Caledonian Business School and the School of the Built and Natural Environment.

To find out more about Innovation Vouchers or business development funding, call 0141 331 3189.

Glasgow Caledonian University has a newly approved Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with diving and marine contractors Shearwater Marine Services Ltd.

The partnership will develop a remote web access technical information database to improve diving inspection processes, business intelligence and provide efficient and added value customer reporting facilities.

The partnership received a grant of £85,700 and is being overseen by Professor Brian Stewart of the School of Engineering and Computing. For more information on KTPs and how they can support your business requirements, contact the Applied Knowledge Exhange on 0141 331 3189.

Tourism Minister Jim Mather has championed the resilience of Scotland’s tourism industry.

He commended the sector’s robust response to challenges brought by the continued tough economic climate and recent disruptions to air travel.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s tourism experts in the Moffat Centre produces the Visitor Attraction Monitor, an annual report on the performance of Scotland’s visitor attractions, with analysis by geographic location and other key variables. The associated Visitor Attraction Barometer is a monthly review of attractions’ performance data. It provides a regular monitor of performance based on returns from visitor numbers provided by a representative sample of attractions. Find out more about our tourism expertise. At the Applied Knowledge Exchange, we can offer your business assistance in the tourism sector.

Mr Mather also highlighted VisitScotland’s recovery plan in support of tourism businesses that have lost bookings over the past week because of the Icelandic volcano.

The initiative will see tourism businesses offered free marketing and advertising opportunities on VisitScotland’s Perfect Day website, complemented by a £100,000 radio and press advertising promotion, to stimulate interest in Scotland and encourage visitors to take a ’staycation’.

Glasgow Caledonian University spin-off company, Biopta, was used as a backdrop for an announcement by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, that more than £4.7 million of European funding is being invested in initiatives to support small and medium enterprises.

Biopta, which was set-up by Dr. David Bunton and Professor Chris Hillier in 2002, now employs 18 people in testing drugs for the pharmaceutical industry using ethically sourced human tissue. 

The firm has benefited from investment of more than £2million from a combination of GCU, Scottish Enterprise’s Proof of Concept Award and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund through matched investment from Braveheart Investment Group and TriCap.

Speaking today, the First Minister congratulated Biopta on being a further example of Scotland’s great innovation traditions, adding that the company counts eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world among its clients.

Find out more about our business successes.

The Applied Knowledge Exchange attended Holyrood Magazine’s Enterprise Scotland 2010 event in Edinburgh to hear Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Jim Mather and Scottish Enterprise’s Lena Wilson give their visions for a stronger Scotland for business.

Lena Wilson insisted that Scotland’s businesses had ‘very serious challenges’ and were underperforming against the UK economy and global competitors. Ms Wilson said Scotland had a low number of businesses per head of the population, and that our businesses were very small.

Her aims for focus? Commercialisation and Internationalism. Ms Wilson said we need to capitalise on our world-class research in life sciences, food and drink and energy.

GCU is currently leading the £3.3m European study aimed at tacking foot and ankle pain.

Ms Wilson also emphasised the potential for Scotland’s businesses to export to China and India. Only 50 Scottish companies are active in China, she says, compared to over 200 Finnish businesses.

She called for a ’greater sense of ambition in businesses and the public sector’.

Jim Mather said we need a ‘new beginning in Scotland’, insisting that the Government was supporting ’sustainable economic growth’. He claimed ‘few sectors will offer Scotland as much as the energy sector’ and emphasised his goals of manufacturing innovation and private investment in renewables. The Scottish Government is to publish its Energy Efficiency Plan this spring.

Glasgow Caledonian University’s School of Health will lead a £3.3million European Commission-funded study aimed at tackling chronic foot and ankle pain including such diseases as Diabetic Foot.

Jim Woodburn, Professor of Rehabilitation at GCU, is working on the A-FOOTPRINT project to develop new orthotic devices to support or correct musculoskeletal problems.

See more about Jim’s work in this video clip. Biomechanics – Jim Woodburn

The Applied Knowledge Exchange is also working with Promedics Orthapaedic with its orthapaedic research, through the Business Transformation Fund grant that allows SMEs to work collaboratively with Glasgow Caledonian University and access specialist expertise including consultancy, contract research and access to facilities or equipment.

On 2 September 2009,  from 9-5pm an event that aims to explore points of contact between the histories, cultures and peoples of Asia and Scotland will take place at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Strathclyde. To attend this free event, please e-mail your details to knowledgetransfer@ahrc.ac.uk.

The event aims to bring arts and humanities researchers in Scotland together with partners from related disciplines and organisations explore contacts between Scottish and Asian cultures with a view to shaping future relationships. These points of contact could be in Asia or in Scotland, or within the wider Scottish and Asian diasporas.

The key questions are what shapes should future relations between Scotland and Asia take and how can arts and humanities researchers work with non-HEI partners in order to realise these?