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Edinburgh Science Triangle named as most enterprising area in Scotland

Edinburgh Science Triangle has been named as the most enterprising area in Scotland by winning the Scottish finals of the Department of Trade and Industry's Enterprising Britain 2007 competition.

The project beat off stiff competition from eight other projects nominated from across Scotland. Edinburgh Science Triangle is a collaborative branding and marketing project to promote the breadth of the Edinburgh and Lothians science capabilities. By doing this, the project aims to position Edinburgh and Lothians as a world class science destination, anticipating this will attract further investment into research activity and the seven science parks in the region.

There are now 3,300 highly skilled world-class researchers and over 100 companies based in the Edinburgh Science Triangle, with the potential to create a further 15,000 new jobs.

The winning project involves multiple partner organisations all working towards the same aim, including The City of Edinburgh Council; Edinburgh Research and Innovation Limited; Heriot Watt University; Midlothian Council; Pentlands Science Park Limited; Roslin Biocentre Limited; Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian; and West Lothian Council.

The Enterprising Britain Scottish awards ceremony was held on Wednesday 23 May 2007 at the Dakota Hotel near Glasgow and recognised each of the nine Scottish finalists and the overall winner, Edinburgh Science Triangle, which will go forward to represent Scotland in the Enterprising Britain 2007 UK finals later this year.

Terry Currie, senior director for Growing Businesses at Scottish Enterprise, said, "This year's finalists were of an extremely high calibre. The judges were looking for a town, city or place that had best improved the economic prospects of the region and encouraged enterprise activities.

This year's finalists were of an extremely high calibre.

"Edinburgh Science Triangle was chosen as the winner as it is a great example of how multiple partners can come together to share knowledge, experience and a common objective to achieve more economic impact for the immediate area and Scotland as a whole.

"Scotland has a rich heritage in enterprise. Our finalists have shown what a diverse and exciting range of projects have been created to help improve our local areas. I wish each project well for the future, and congratulate Edinburgh Science Triangle on a well deserved win."

Barry Shafe, project director for Edinburgh Science Triangle, commented, "These are exciting times for Edinburgh Science Triangle and we now want to take the project to its next phase. The Edinburgh and Lothian region has long been at the leading edge of creativity and innovation, giving the world some major inventions and breakthroughs that we take for granted today.

"Winning the Scottish award for the Enterprising Britain 2007 contest is a great endorsement of the work and effort each of our partners has put in to the project."

The nationwide contest, Enterprising Britain 2007, is run by the DTI's Small Business Service in partnership with Scottish Enterprise and aims to identify enterprise champions, places that have created jobs, brought communities together and made a real difference to local businesses and local people.

Find out more about the Enterprising Britain Awards on the Make your mark website