Innovation Week 2025 - Scottish Funding Council

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This week is National Innovation Week. We’re celebrating Scotland’s proud legacy of innovation and global leadership in pioneering the transformative technologies and industries of the future.

SFC is committed to supporting innovation in Scotland with £25m invested in universities to enable knowledge exchange (through the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund (KEIF)) as well as nearly £10m in our long-term infrastructure investments such as our four innovation centres, Interface and Converge enabling transformational collaborations between universities; colleges; and the public and private sector. This week we want to highlight some of the important work that these innovation centres do as well as our world-class universities.

This underpinning support in our universities and investment in these organisation helps connect our academic expertise with industry to enhance innovation through collaboration. These are all the themes that we are highlighting this Innovation Week.

SCOTCAP - Colon Capsule Endoscopy, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre

Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) led multi-sector collaboration testing Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE) for early bowel cancer diagnosis for NHS Scotland.

The University of Aberdeen and the University of Strathclyde carried out research on service evaluation and patient experience. During the innovation phase, Glasgow School of Art led the DHI Design team to capture insight from professionals.

The Colon Capsule contains a digital camera which is swallowed and, on its journey, takes up to 400,000 images. The size of a vitamin pill, the test is safe for patients.

Evaluations showed improved patient care, reduced travel, and increased diagnostic capacity, leading to a £5m industry investment in Inverness.

Now a consortium of 12 partners across Europe, has received a €6 million Horizon Europe grant, to work towards eliminating the current medical, technical, and economic barriers to the adoption of AI-supported Image Analysis in Large Bowel Camera Capsule Endoscopy (AICE).

This includes demonstrating that AI algorithms are at least as effective as humans at analysing endoscopy images and identifying where further investigation is required.

The four-year AICE project involves the University of Strathclyde, NHS Highland and Islands and two of Scotland’s innovation centres – The Data Lab and the Strathclyde-hosted Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre.

Find more information on the project.

Blackwood Homes, The Data Lab

The University of Edinburgh worked with The DataLab and Canon Medical to explore how smart meter data can be used to infer many health and wellbeing issues.

Blackwood Homes have the vision to build homes that enable people with illnesses like Alzheimer’s to live more independent lives.

This research resulted in further funding from UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Trailblazers challenge to create neighbourhoods designed for independent living.

The project is currently being trialed in three Scottish neighborhoods and has the potential to improve quality of life and transform social care practice.

You can find more information on the project here.

Next Gen, BE – ST

Next Gen is a programme designed to allow young people from across Scotland to get hands-on with low carbon and sustainable construction.

Since 2023, BE-ST has provided training to over 1,000 young learners, covering knowledge and training in retrofit, Passivhaus digital construction and modern methods of construction.

Workshops are designed for aspiring architects, technicians, technologists, quantity surveyors, project managers, brick layers, joiners, stonemasons, plumbers, plasterers, structural civil, mechanical and electrical engineers and more.

The sessions are delivered at BE-ST, and involve theory, interactive learning and practical sessions.

Find out more information on the project.