Eight new regional innovation launchpads were announced last week, backed by £75 million in funding. Now, Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK have jointly launched the programme to help bolster Scotland’s thriving bio-based manufacturing industry. 

Bio-based manufacturing involves the creation of products made from biological resources, such as waste from primary production and industrial processes. 

The bioeconomy, which is the economic activity using bio materials and science, is critical to meeting future goals in the UK. The funding comes on the backdrop of the UK’s wider Bioeconomy national strategy, which is setting out to position the UK as a leader in biotechnology, and grow the impact of the sector to £440 billion in gross value added to the UK economy by 2030.

Knowledge of its impact however, is mixed. In a survey among 1,000 consumers by SynbiCITE on their perception of the bioeconomy, one in eight said they had at least a little knowledge of it. However 94% of respondents who had prior knowledge said they felt it was important to the UK. 

Scotland is uniquely positioned to drive the bioeconomy, as it already produces over 10 million tonnes of organic surplus every year for bio-based processes according to zero waste Scotland.  This could be used in many ways from food and feed ingredients to bio-based materials that could replace petrochemicals. 

“Scotland is renowned for innovation and our bio-based manufacturing sector is really flourishing,” said Scottish Enterprise Director of Innovation & Place Derek Shaw.

“We are working with the industry to build a cluster that will benefit businesses in many ways, and our partnership with Innovate UK ensures the support is in place to allow the sector to continue to thrive.”

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Now, small and medium sized enterprises, along with larger corporations are able to apply for support packages ranging from £25,000 to £1m. The Scottish bio-manufacturing industry was one of 8 UK clusters that was identified as having significant growth potential.

“Innovate UK has been building strong regional partnerships across the UK to support local innovation and commercialisation,” said Innovate UK CEO Indro Mukerjee.

“The launch of the Scotland bio-based manufacturing Launchpad is an important step and another example of active collaboration with regional partners to deliver growth and productivity through innovation,”