You may have already heard that spending on business research and development in Scotland has topped £1 billion for the first time ever. Data published shows Scotland’s R&D investment levels in 2016 were running three times faster than the UK as a whole.
This echoes the results of the EY Attractiveness Survey announced earlier this year, which recognised Scotland as the UK leader in attracting foreign direct investment for R&D projects.
I’m delighted to hear this as it’s a truly fantastic result and one that we should all be very proud of. It also shows that our collective work to help raise levels of business innovation in Scotland is generating serious results.
These figures chime with our own innovation achievements, which we announced yesterday and include:
n Helping over 2800 companies to start innovating
n £750 million of new revenue from successful innovation projects with Scottish companies, with international sales comprising half of this
n £424 million of investment in new R&D activity in Scotland, an increase of 77% compared to the previous two years
n Scottish Enterprise-supported projects now account for £1 of every £4 spent on R&D in Scotland
You can read the full news release on our media centre.
It’s safe to say business innovation in Scotland is at an all-time high, with businesses reaping more commercial success than ever before from their innovation activity to drive their growth and international expansion.
We set out two years ago to transform Scotland’s innovation performance to equal the best performing nations by 2020, creating the foundations for significant growth in Scotland’s export and productivity performance.
To achieve this, we wanted to create a transformational shift in the ambitions of Scottish companies. So, we designed an integrated approach to stimulate business demand, and aligned our full resources behind it as no single measure will create a step change for Scotland’s levels of business innovation.
We wanted to support companies engaging in innovation to do more of it, get more companies to start innovating, improve our investment in BERD and maximise our sector opportunities.
Sounds straightforward, right?! We knew this shift wouldn’t happen overnight, and we’ve still got a long way to go to reach our goals. However, we know from our results and independent research that this approach is working.
Our performance results over the last two years show a universal rise in business innovation activity across Scotland, regardless of how you measure it.
We’ve supported over 2800 companies to start innovating in the last two years. This mirrors the most recent UK Innovation Survey which found Scotland has increased its innovation active companies by 7% since 2013.
We also know there’s a strong correlation between innovation and exporting, with research showing businesses that actively innovate are twice as likely to grow and three times more likely to export successfully.
Over time we expect the companies we work with to increase their exporting as a result of their innovation activity. This should provide a strong platform and pipeline for growth and exports in the future.
All of this is fantastic news for Scotland’s economy. However, results like these do not happen by accident. They’re the result of a tremendous amount of work from colleagues.
And not just innovation colleagues. These results are down to a fantastic team effort across Scottish Enterprise, with colleagues across a range of teams collaborating on opportunities and connecting us with companies we can help.
The collaboration theme continues as we deliver our work in partnership with a variety of organisations. For example, we are fortunate to have very strong local authority relationships that allow us to pool our resources, reduce duplication and simplify support for companies in the local area.
We’re committed to continuing these collaborations across private and public sector and aim to build momentum throughout 2018.
All of this is fantastic news for Scotland’s economy. But we are even more ambitious for the future to help more companies generate new revenue from innovation activity.
Help us spread the message that there’s a variety of support from Scottish Enterprise to help companies innovate and let’s get more companies growing through innovation.
If you’d like to ask us about our services or events, give us a call on 0300 013 3385 or visit www.scottish-enterprise.com
