This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Support for construction and defence businesses
18/05/2005
Two universities in Glasgow will receive funding for
innovative projects supporting businesses in the
construction and defence industries.
Money from the SEEKIT (Scottish Executive Expertise,
Knowledge & Innovation Transfer) fund will go to:
- A Knowledge Transfer Initiative
for the Defence Sector, run by the University of
Glasgow. The project will receive £284,794 to support
and advise high technology small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) on how to take advantage of
opportunities provided by the defence industry
- Sustainability in Scottish
Construction SMEs, run by Glasgow Caledonian
University. This project will receive £85,870 to help
construction SMEs use innovative measures to improve
competitiveness and efficiency
Deputy Enterprise Minister Allan Wilson said:
"The value of funding from programmes such as SEEKIT is
aptly demonstrated by the two projects that will benefit
from today's announcement. Both show that by exploiting the
excellence of our world class universities we can support
and develop our businesses.
"Enabling our businesses to take advantage of our
excellent science base effectively and efficiently will
clearly be vital to achieving our top priority of growing
the economy. This is where funds such as SEEKIT come in.
The money they provide is vital to supporting this often
difficult and sometimes risky process.
"I am sure both universities will be able to use the
money I am announcing today to help SMEs take advantage of
the huge opportunities available in the defence and
construction industries. By doing so they will create and
safeguard jobs and benefit not just the Glasgow area, but
the whole Scottish economy."
The SEEKIT (Scottish Executive Expertise, Knowledge
& Innovation Transfer) programme supports universities,
research institutes and other public sector bodies to put
in place the infrastructure needed to facilitate
co-operation in research and development (R&D) and
productive knowledge transfer between the Scottish public
sector science base and our companies.
SEEKIT funds large projects, often costing over £500k
usually with co-finance from the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF). To date 10 SEEKIT awards have been
completed. In total, offers totalling £2.8 million have
been awarded.