CivTech, the Scottish Government’s national accelerator programme, is returning to Scotland this year in a virtual capacity.

The programme will be taking place online from 2nd-4th February with three days of pitches from a current cohort of companies.

‘Innovating the Future’ is the overarching theme of the 2021 event, as well as recognising the difficulties the world has faced during 2020.

The programme will explore and showcase the ways that tech and innovation will help Scotland to “escape the pandemic and emerge into new ways of living and working together”.

It will include keynotes from Kate Forbes and Ben Macpherson, as well as senior figures across the public and private sector including Mark Logan. In addition, the event will host exhibition areas and networking opportunities.

Recommended

• Converge kicks off its search for Scotland’s future creative thinkers
• Emotet botnet shut down following international police operation
• Digital dermatology service to rollout across Scotland

Mark Elliott, Programme Director at CivTech, said: “We’re proud of our growing international reputation as the pre-eminent public sector-focused tech incubation system in the world and that is due in no small part to the quality of solutions put forward by our entrants.

“What we are doing is nothing less than innovating the future, putting innovation at the heart of everything the public sector does.

“Please register for Demo Week 5.0 and join us in helping to create great businesses and jobs that will drive prosperity for the nation.”

Following the successful Accelerator Day One in October, 11 teams have been selected to demonstrate their solutions to a range of critical technological challenges facing public sector organisations.

Over the last seven weeks, CivTech has been working with the chosen teams and Challenge Sponsors, including Transport Scotland, NHS Scotland, Nature Scot, HITRANS, Connecting Scotland and Forestry and Land Scotland, in an intensive product and business development programme aiming to “stimulate innovation”.

DIGIT’S 2021 #virtualevents calendar:

📅 #MarTech Summit https://t.co/JkViHnOzbF Wed 24 Feb
📅 ScotSecure #CyberSecurity Summit https://t.co/JaD886wGh9 24/ 25 Mar
📅 #DigitalEnergy Summit https://t.co/thGSfrBqlM 22 Apr
📅 DIGIT #Leader Summit https://t.co/alC1xjRvtW 26 May pic.twitter.com/XXGqh5Braw

— DIGIT (@digitfyi) January 18, 2021

This year’s challenges span a range of sectors including healthcare, forestry, transport and learning. Key challenges consider:

• The ways in which technology can assist farmers to improve the environment under their stewardship such as a farm payments system based on the quality of the environmental results delivered
• How we can help shape the future of online learning in the wake of Covid-19
• How Scotland can use technology to create a smart and sustainable travel network in remote and rural areas
• How innovation can help NHS Scotland to reduce virus transmission in care settings

Ivan McKee, Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, who attended the Accelerator launch event said: “I am looking forward to seeing what the 11 teams have put together over the last seven weeks.

“The challenges they are working on will provide ground-breaking responses to some of the most important issues we face as a nation, including how we respond to the climate crisis and build a wellbeing economy.

“I encourage anyone with an interest in tech innovation to sign up to see this year’s teams present their solutions towards addressing these shared challenges.”

If you haven’t already registered you can do so here.