The Scottish Government has announced new details surrounding its plans for boosting university spinouts in the hope of building on the country’s reputation as a ‘startup nation’.

Three new initiatives, backed by £4.4 million in public funding, are being launched to help turn ground-breaking research across Scotland’s universities and colleges into high-growth businesses.

The package includes £700,000 for an Entrepreneurial Campus Blueprint, which will help college students develop business skills and link up with investors, as well as £800,000 for a Spinout Pipeline Project which, led by the University of Strathclyde, to share commercialisation expertise across Scottish universities, ending in a summit where innovators will pitch to potential investors.

A further £141,000, spent over two years, will support a new course at the University of Aberdeen to train 40 high school computing teachers, better preparing future generations for careers in tech-based businesses.

However, the majority of the funding, £2.9 million, has been earmarked for a new Proof of Concept Fund, designed to explore the commercial potential of research projects by developing prototypes and pitching to investors, as well as analysing markets to attract further investment.

According to the Scottish Government, the fund will bridge the ‘Valley of Death’ between initial research and commercial applications, arguing that one of the main barriers to commercialisation activity is a lack of investment at the proof-of-concept stage.

By helping to de-risk projects and attract early-stage investment, it’s hoped that the funding will support a pipeline of projects with commercial potential that will either license their technology or form spin-out companies that contribute to the Scottish scale-up ecosystem.

Laying out the details of the new funding schemes, Scotland’s deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, said: “The Scottish Government is fostering and supporting entrepreneurial talent as part of strategic investment to capitalise on Scotland’s reputation as a start-up nation.

“Our universities and colleges are the engines of innovation. They are known the world over as the home of some of the greatest ideas and inventions ever made and can present real solutions to the challenges we face.   

“This new investment underlines our commitment to realising the economic potential of the incredible work taking place across Scottish universities and colleges.”

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Plans for innovation funding were first announced as part of the Scottish Government’s latest Programme for Government in May, which emphasised the need to support Scots innovators and increase startup creation if the country is to stay ahead in the global economy.   

As well as delivering the Proof of Concept Fund, the Government’s plans also included £6 million to help women start and scale businesses through implementing Ana Stewart’s Pathways report, a £1.2 million boost for Scottish Edge, and the launch of AI Scotland, a new national transformation programme to foster tech adoption by SMEs.