The University of Edinburgh has expanded its flagship tech incubator programme for the first time, welcoming bold new ideas from across Scotland’s university network.

A fresh cohort of thirty-six rising tech entrepreneurs will receive backing from Edinburgh’s Venture Builder Incubator, gaining access to funding, office space, and mentorship at the Bayes Centre, the university’s innovation hub for AI and data science.

Among this year’s projects from across ten Scottish universities are an AI that can detect fake alcohol, an app offering support for young people with brain tumours, and an award-winning AI to streamline admin tasks for lawyers.

Other initiatives include the development of wearable devices for the treatment and monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease, a project aiming to create organic chemicals, bioplastics and hydrogen from organic waste, and a healthtech building novel biopsy kits and AI diagnostic software to tackle cancer.

Meanwhile, Nazia Gillani, a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh, is developing a smart home system to help older people avoid falls with a device that can sense subtle signs of frailty and use AI to predict an individual’s decline, sending timely warning alerts to help prevent falls.

“One third to half of older adults experience a gradual mobility decline, impacting around five million unpaid carers,” said Gillani. 

“This slow deterioration means that it can go unnoticed until a serious event happens, such as a fall, which can be devastating. Support from the Venture Builder this year will be invaluable to helping my idea become a reality and tackle this major issue.” 

Founded in 2021, the Venture Builder Incubator has supported more than 130 academics at the University of Edinburgh, claiming that past cohorts have raised more than £55 million in grants and investments.

In partnership with the Scottish Government’s Techscaler programme, the accelerator will become a nationwide initiative, which the Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, called a ‘major step’ in expanding support for transformative academic projects.

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The Scottish Government is particularly keen to promote the commercialisation of academic research, building on 2023’s Entrepreneurial Campus report, which called on the government to investigate how third-party incubators like Edinburgh Uni’s can bolster the nationwide entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“We need many more start-ups in Scotland – and universities are a fertile ground to find and educate new founders and new and innovative ideas,” said Steven Drost, vice chair at CodeBase, the delivery partner for Techscaler.

“We are committed to empowering founders from academic institutions to create and scale world-class deep tech companies, while inviting local and global investors to be part of their growth journey.”