How market research can help you unlock energy transition opportunities
Do the time and cost of market research make it difficult for you to access opportunities? Learn about our market research service from Emily Wilson, Team Leader for our Research and Customer Resources team. She explains how the free service can give you the insights, advice, and connections you need.
Market research can help you unlock Scotland's exciting range of energy transition opportunities – but the time and cost can be too much for some businesses. That’s where our free market research service can help you.
Free research to help your business grow
Our market research service was originally established to help Scottish companies solve problems in the market and to provide free support to firms starting a new venture.
Now, the service focuses more on energy transition opportunities. It has also increased its activity around emerging technologies – such as AI and digital transformation – that are aligned with key energy transition opportunities.
Each member of the market research team is a specialist in a particular area and works closely with other Scottish Enterprise colleagues and partner agencies. We’re just one small piece of a bigger jigsaw of support.
The companies we support
We'll work with any company in Scotland that’s interested in energy transition opportunities.
This means you could be a very early-stage company seeking investment to develop ideas, or a spinout from a university. Sometimes, we’ll meet amazingly interesting and creative people who have worked in an industry and have an idea they’d like to take forward.
On the other hand, you might work for an established firm that employs a large number of people and wants to take its business in a slightly different direction – or even shift focus completely.
We'll work closely with your company to understand exactly what you want to do and the specific areas you need help with.
I’m always impressed by the companies our team work with. It’s exciting to play a part in helping them develop and grow – and being involved in the wider effort to address the climate challenge is rewarding.
It’s so encouraging to see the innovation, enthusiasm, and capabilities that Scottish companies have, as well as the real potential they have to make a difference.
The companies will always have more expertise than we do, but we can help them access data that is just out of reach, whether for cost reasons or due to a lack of time or resource.
Our role is to help them fill the gaps in their knowledge and understanding.
Evidence-based answers to crucial questions
Companies often want to build a pitch deck of information they can share with potential investors, partners, or customers. To do that, you need robust, independent evidence.
Our research service subscribes to a huge range of commercial market intelligence platforms. Recently, we've pushed to strengthen its coverage around energy transition sectors, including:
- Offshore wind
- Clean heat
- Hydrogen
- Transport decarbonisation
We're able to use this intelligence along with reports commissioned by other Scottish Enterprise teams and public domain information to answer crucial questions for your company. These include:
- What is the market like?
- Who are the key players?
- What are the likely trends?
- Who would my competitors and customers be?
If you're running a smaller company, accessing high-quality and reliable data can be difficult. Scotland's energy transition opportunities are huge, but it can be hard to know where to start. We can help you access the information you need in a low-risk way.
How to get started
Connecting with our market research service is easy.
It usually starts with an initial 30-minute phone call to help us understand what your company needs and what the context is. Typically, our team will come back within five working days. You'll get a focused email response that’s tailored to your company's specific questions and presented in an easy-to-digest way.
Crucially, the support doesn't end there. Your company can come back to us as often as it needs to.
The sheer range and scale of opportunities around energy transition can feel quite daunting. But we're here to support and guide your business, to ensure it's well-equipped and ready to take on these challenges and help transform Scotland’s economy.
The difference our research makes
One energy transition company that has benefited from our research support is Ilosta (Crack Map™). Ilosta has developed ground-breaking technology that uses a physics-based AI algorithm to help improve the reliability of engineering structures like wind turbines and extend their lifespan.
Its digital AI monitoring software (Crack Map™) provides analytics to inspectors, surveyors, asset owners, and insurance providers. It gives them a deeper understanding of their asset integrity and helps make the renewable energy industry even more sustainable.
The Glasgow-based firm approached our research service to help identify US wind farm and drone companies that it should engage with. It believes the support it received has played a pivotal role in its recent growth.
From insight to action: Ilosta’s US market journey
The company’s founder, Dr Saber Khayatzadeh, contacted the research service after Ilosta was selected as one of the UK delegates to attend a US offshore event.
We had an initial set-up call to discuss what the company needed and what it wanted to learn more about. Ilosta received the required information just a few days later.
"I was impressed by how easily accessible and quick it was," says Khayatzadeh. "The team provided us with a substantial amount of information about different companies active in different states in the US, and different functionality.
"The US is a huge market, so the in-depth information helped us work out where to start. It helped us to make strategic decisions about which states should be a priority for us. Now we're in live conversations with people in the US, to see how we can commercially expand there.”
Ilosta Marketing Manager Maria Hillier adds, "Gaining access to materials that the research service has, including materials that would have been too expensive for us to access on our own, or that we might not have known about before, made a big difference and saved us a huge amount of time. It has played a pivotal role in our growth."
Get started
If your business is looking to conduct market research on energy transition opportunities, our specialist researchers are here to help.
Book a 30-minute video call with a researcher today, at a time that suits you, so we can understand your requirements fully before starting work on your request.
Book a discovery callopens in a new window
If you have any questions, you can also get in touch with our team.
-
Sign up to email updates
Subscribe to our newsletter to hear about new business guides, case studies, events and industry updates.