Scotland - a supportive environment for growth
Working in harmony
The whole of Scotland is behind life sciences, which is a key sector of the Scottish economy.
There is a genuine Life Sciences community and a spirit of collaboration in Scotland.
And Scotland is unique in having a fully integrated national strategy for life sciences.
Scottish Life Sciences Strategy (PDF, 1.1 Mb) Life Sciences Alliance
All this adds up to make Scotland a great place to locate a business or build your career.
- Government support
- International collaboration
- Collaboration within Scotland
- Trade bodies
- Networking groups
- Specialist supplier base
- Workforce Development
- Infrastructure for life sciences
Government support
A number of government initiatives support growing life science businesses at key stages of development, and early stage technology development in Universities and Research institutes.
The Scottish Executive has announced a £40 million equity fund to support innovative businesses, including life sciences.
The Scottish Enterprise Network has pledged £1.85m to support the commercialisation of research through the Scottish Stem Cell Network for a further ten year period.
And stem cell research in the UK benefits from an established and stable regulatory environment.
Public sector support for life sciences
International collaboration
The Scottish life sciences community warmly embraces international collaboration. We openly welcome opportunities to share information and expertise.
Collaboration within Scotland
A collaborative ethos and the proximity of key life science research centres facilitates multicentre collaborative research. This type of activity helps share knowledge, reduce development times and reduce costs.
Examples of collaborative research initiatives include:
- Sackler Institute of Psychobiological Research
- collaboration between the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh
- created by a significant grant from The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation
- ground-breaking research into neuropsychiatric disorders
- The Yoshitomi Research Institute of Neuroscience in Glasgow (YRING)
- based at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde
- brings together leading biomedical researchers and clinical psychiatrists
- aims to create novel antipsychotic treatments for schizophrenia
- funded by Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation (formerly Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd)
- Generation Scotland
- a unique partnership between the Scottish University Medical Schools, Biomedical Research Institutes, the NHS in Scotland and the people of Scotland. aims to create an ethically sound, family- and population-based infrastructure to identify the genetic basis of common complex diseases.
- two complementary projects: Genetic Health in the 21st Century and the Scottish Family Health Study.
- these projects will recruit a cohort of 50,000 individuals, starting early in 2006. Generation Scotland is establishing multi-disciplinary skills networks in genetic epidemiology, statistical genetics and health informatics.
- The Scottish Bioinformatics Research Network (SBRN)
- consortium of five Scottish universities and research institutes
- tackling the problems of human and agricultural disease
- set up by bioinformatics researchers and Scottish Enterprise
- promotes collaboration and commercialisation of bioinformatics research in Scotland.
Trade Bodies
As you would expect with a rapidly maturing life science community, there are several trade bodies that support different aspects of the sector.
- ABPI Scotland
- UK pharmaceutical industry's main industry body and lobby group
- members include 75 companies in the UK producing prescription medicines and supplying more than 90 per cent of the medicines prescribed through the National Health Service (NHS)
- membership open to companies in the UK which supply prescription medicines for human use.
- ABPI Scotland set up in 1999 in order to lobby the new Scottish Parliament
- BIA (Scotland)
- trade association for innovative enterprises in the Scottish bioscience sector
- created in May 2001 following a merger with the Scottish Bionetwork Association
- Medical Devices in Scotland (MDiS)
- ‘not for profit’ organisation
- supports and strengthens the medical device industry in Scotland
- develops partnerships between the Scottish NHS, academia and industry to assist the commercialisation of ideas.
Networking Groups
There are a number of regional networking organisations that provide opportunities for interaction between all aspects of Scotland’s vibrant community at a local level.
- BioDundee
- partnership between the public, private and academic sectors to promote biotechnology growth in the Dundee area
- Nexxus, the West of Scotland Bioscience Network
- increases the local and national profile of the West of Scotland as a centre of excellence for bioscience
- forum for interaction across all sectors of the community
- facilitates communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration between organisations
Specialist supplier base
Scotland has a highly developed network of specialist suppliers to the life science industry, ensuring that all the support services and professional advisers you require are on hand to help your business grow.
Key capabilities – Specialist suppliers
Workforce Development
Scotland also has a highly skilled workforce and a large pool of graduates and post doctoral researchers in life sciences.
There is a number of initiatives to encourage young people to become interested in science - ensuring that Scotland has a strong pipeline of excellent graduates and technicians available for the future of Life Sciences in Scotland.
Life science career initiatives for schools
Scottish Colleges Biotechnology Consortium offers a wide range of biotechnology training for industry technicians and managers, working closely with industrial partners to design short courses and training programmes to further develop existing workforces.
Infrastructure for life sciences
To accommodate rapid growth, state of the art facilties have been developed across Scotland.