Innovation and research
A supportive government, excellent university facilities and a history of innovation all contribute to Scotland’s expertise in research and development.
Scotland is a global leader for innovation in electronics, life sciences and software development.
The Scottish Government is supportive of research and available funding includes:
Scotland’s innovation and research expertise
Scotland’s universities remain committed to research and building on a legacy of innovation that has produced the television, telephone, penicillin, Radar, antiseptic and anaesthetic. The list is long and it keeps on growing.
Today Scotland leads the world in industrial innovation. Many major international companies have operations here, recognising our cutting-edge research techniques and commitment to developing new products and services.
Recent Scottish innovations include the worlds first commercially available bionic hand; the first successfully cloned mammal and major research into nanotechnology and the Grand Theft Auto video games series, demonstrating the breadth of our continuous innovations across a number of key sectors.
Research and innovation in Scotland’s universities
Scotland’s universities attract students from across the globe.
Glasgow and Dundee have been named among the top five locations in the world for life sciences research, largely thanks to work carried out in the biotechnology field by their universities.
Our universities are experienced at working in tandem with industry and developing innovations from laboratory to market, helping create commercial opportunites across several industries.
In fact, Scotland’s academics produce one percent of all research publications in the world – ranking Scotland third in the world for the number of research publications published per head of the population.