Food and drink

The food and drink sector is a cornerstone of the region's economy. It draws on abundant natural resources, high-quality ingredients and a rich heritage. It also embraces innovation and new technologies to meet growing sustainability demands and changing consumer preferences.

Iconic global brands such as Baxters and Walkers show the region’s commitment to excellence, combining tradition with innovation to produce premium products that are directly attributed to its world-class natural assets.

Distilleries benefit from the region’s distinctive water, geology and climate. The Scotch whisky industry has committed to reaching net zero emissions in its operations by 2040. Investments are also being made in low carbon energy solutions, sustainable supply chains and new facilities.

Sheltered sea lochs and cool, clean, oxygen-rich waters create the ideal environment for farming Atlantic salmon. Businesses work in partnership with leading research institutions to address regional and global challenges, ensuring Scottish salmon remains a healthy, sustainable blue food.

Life sciences

The region is an ideal location to develop, test and trial new and innovative technologies in healthcare and health tech. It’s ambitious for healthcare technologies that help patients access treatment remotely where appropriate – reducing the need for long distances travel for hospital care.

LifeScan is one of Scotland’s largest medical technology companies, supplying global markets from its Inverness base.

Inverness Campus is a world-class location for the life sciences sector. There’s also a breadth of business and research activity in the Aquaculture, Animal health and Agri-tech sectors (AAA). The campus is also home to Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) which opened a new £12.5 million Rural and Veterinary Innovation Centre (RAVIC) in 2024. The centre uses expertise in big data and animal epidemiology to support business creation and growth. 

European Marine Science Park (EMSP) is a thriving cluster of more than a dozen marine business enterprises near Oban. It has more than 100 marine scientists permanently stationed there to study local marine ecology.

The park is also home to the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), a leading marine science research organisation and collaboration partner. 

Renewable energy

Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport is at the heart of Europe’s renewable energy industry.

Together, they're building Scotland’s renewable energy powerhouse, combining strategic tax incentives, world-class infrastructure and direct access to Europe’s richest offshore wind resources.

Energy transition

The Highlands and Islands is central to Scotland’s offshore wind opportunity – 18 of Scotland’s 27 proposed offshore wind projects are planned for waters off the region’s coast. The region is poised to play a leading international leading role in floating wind development.

Scotland is home to some of the most experienced offshore energy ports in Europe, creating a pool of highly capable port facilities and operators. They play a key role in the deployment of renewables and hosting high-end manufacturing such as Sumitomo Electric’s subsea cable factory at the Port of Nigg.

The region also has a growing onshore wind development pipeline of 11.5 gigawatts.

Scotland is leading the world in the development and testing of tidal stream and wave energy technologies, and the region is home to several leading projects. Local marine supply chain companies have gained worldwide recognition for having a highly-skilled workforce to maintain and develop a robust supply chain for this expanding sector.

European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney is the world’s first facility for demonstrating and testing wave and tidal energy converters. More ocean energy converters have been tested at EMEC than at any other site worldwide. The centre is also pioneering the creation of hydrogen from tidal energy.

The Highlands and Islands is emerging as one of Scotland’s most important regions for green hydrogen production, export and innovation. The scale of offshore and onshore wind projects in the region is a major opportunity to power the creation of green hydrogen along with green ammonia and methanol production.

The geography of the region with its mountains and lochs lends itself to the development of hydro power. It's already home to Scotland’s only operational pumped storage hydro (PSH) projects with a total of 740 megawatts of capacity.

Technology and innovation

The Data Lab in Inverness helps businesses make better use of their data by providing specialist advice, support and training.

Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) works to increase the economic impact and reduce the environmental impact of aquaculture. It brings together commercial enterprise and academia to fund and support commercially relevant, collaborative research.

The Scottish Government is investing £42 million in a national network of Tech Scaler hubs. These hubs give companies access to education and mentoring, as well as opportunities for peer learning and networking.

Aerospace and space

The Highlands and Islands is fast becoming a hub of space sector activity in Scotland.

Scotland’s northern geography and low population density provide the perfect conditions to launch commercial satellites into low earth polar and sun synchronous orbits.

Four spaceport sites are being developed in the region to provide launch or test capability in the coming years: Spaceport 1 in the Western Isles, SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, Sutherland Spaceport and Machrihanish Air Base.