This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Funding to improve educational business links
15/08/2005
The UHI Millennium Institute today received additional
funding of more than £500,000 to improve research and
innovation support to businesses in the Highlands and
Islands.
Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
Allan Wilson said:
"We have a great science base in Scotland, one which
punches well above its weight. It is vital that we utilise
this asset by ensuring that the wealth of knowledge in our
universities and other research institutions is accessible
by Scottish companies.
"Collaborations with science help make our businesses
more competitive and grow the economy. All Scottish
businesses, be they in the Central Belt or here in the
Highlands and Islands, must be able to take advantage of
the resources our science base can offer.
"I am therefore delighted to announce £504,000 from
SEEKIT (the Scottish Executive Expertise, Knowledge &
Innovation Transfer programme) for UHI today.
"This award will help the institute's highly innovative
'HI LINKS' project to provide improved research, innovation
and knowledge transfer support to SMEs in the Highlands and
Islands.
"It aims to source opportunities for knowledge exchange
and progress them to full research and development
proposals or to technology and knowledge transfer
contracts.
"UHI and its partners will be able to deliver a wide
range of benefits for local companies and add to the local
knowledge economy, as well as contributing to improved
productivity and competitiveness.
"That can only be good news both for businesses here in
the Highlands and for our economy in general."
UHI Principal Professor Bob Cormack added:
"This funding will enable us to further develop our
support for local SMEs. It is important that businesses in
the Highlands and Islands have access to the same research
and knowledge base as is available to those in other parts
of Scotland.
"Our network of 15 colleges and research institutions
are an integral part of their local economies and
communities and can provide the regional knowledge and
experience required by SMEs."
This brings the total awarded under SEEKIT to over £3.6
million. The HI LINKS PROJECT is also well supported
locally and it will receive substantial contributions from
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (£244,000) and from the
UHI Millennium Institute itself (£47,000) towards the
overall cost of £795,000.
A notable feature of this particular project is the
co-operation extended to the UHI from other Higher
Education Institutions throughout Scotland, many of whom
have offered to contribute to the knowledge pool available
to companies in the Highlands and Islands.
UHI Millennium Institute was designated by the Scottish
Parliament in April 2001 as a Higher Education Institution.
It provides university-level education and research through
a partnership of 15 colleges and research institutions.
Currently over 5000 students are studying on UHI courses or
undertaking post-graduate research with UHI. The UHI
mission is to create a University of the Highlands &
Islands by 2007.
To complement the range of support measures already in
place, we introduced two new initiatives last year, SCORE
(the SME Collaborative Research scheme) and SEEKIT, with a
combined budget, over three years, of some £9 million.
These schemes are both aimed at increasing co-operation
between our universities and our businesses, and both will
encourage more Scottish companies to become involved in
R&D.
While SCORE provides direct assistance to help SMEs to
fund research collaborations with the science base, SEEKIT
supports universities, research institutes and other public
sector bodies to put in place infrastructure which will
help them to co-operate with Scottish companies in R&D
and productive knowledge transfer.