This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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'RADIKAL' funding to help new businesses
10/11/2004
A project which provides Scottish businesses with
expertise in advanced and innovative manufacturing is to
receive funding worth £487,388.
Deputy Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson praised RADIKAL
(Research and Development, Innovation, Knowledge, Adoption
and Liaison), a project run by The Scottish Manufacturing
Institute (SMI) at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, as
he announced the investment today.
He said:
"We are constantly seeking new and innovative ways of
pursuing our key aim of growing the economy. RADIKAL is a
cutting edge project that proves exactly how this can be
done.
"I believe the advanced support it will provide will
prove crucial to small and medium sized businesses across
Scotland.
"By providing access to the expertise at Heriot-Watt and
SMI, RADIKAL will encourage individuals to establish and
grow start-up businesses and university spin-out
enterprises. In turn, these businesses will help create and
support new jobs which are vital to the long-term health of
this country's economy."
The money, which comes from the Executive's SEEKIT
programme, has also been welcomed at Heriot-Watt
University.
Robert Bruce, Strategic Business Development Manager at
Heriot-Watt
University's Technology Research Services (TRS),
said:
"We are delighted that the new funding will enable us to
target support towards vital sections of the Scottish
economy.
"Heriot-Watt is already home to the SMI, which is one of
the principal centres within the UK for research and
development directed towards manufacturing industry.
"This new funding from the Scottish Executives SEEKIT
fund will
enable us to extend that provision and support,
focussing
specifically on SMEs and start-up businesses under our
new RADIKAL
project.
"Thanks to the SMI we already have the range of
expertise which smaller and developing businesses need, but
which they often have difficulty accessing."
The SEEKIT programme is designed to support projects
that will promote co-operation in R&D and knowledge
transfer between the Scottish public sector science base
and the small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Applications are invited from public bodies, such as
Universities, Research Institutes, Technology Transfer
Organisations, NHS Trusts etc .
The scheme is not prescriptive and it will support a
wide range of knowledge transfer/outreach activities.
However, all project proposals must show that the project
will improve the science base partner's ability to work
effectively with Scottish based SMEs and will ultimately
result in positive competitive benefits to local
businesses.
The key objectives of the new programme are: to help
effect wealth creation from the science base; to increase
the competitiveness of SMEs through their engagement with
the science base; and to encourage productive knowledge
transfer links between the science base and business.
The project 'RADIKAL' by Heriot-Watt University aims to
provide technology expertise in advanced and innovative
manufacturing to Scottish SMEs especially in the field of
photonics, digital tools and micro-systems engineering.
The RADIKAL project is based on the recent creation of a
£4.2m Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC) funded Scottish Manufacturing Institute (SMI), the
only Innovative Research Manufacturing Centre in Scotland
at Heriot-Watt.