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NESTA Invests In Scottish Innovation

NESTA has announced a series of investments, initiatives and support-projects designed to drive innovation in Scotland...

New NESTA Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum visited Scotland on 9 December 2005 to unveil a series of investments and initiatives designed to drive innovation in Scotland.

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NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is announcing a range of initiatives designed to have impact at a key stage of the innovation process: through early stage business support and seed investment. These include:

• Two investments worth a total of £200,000 to young technology companies in Scotland. This injection of early stage seed capital is designed to help commercialise promising ideas for new products and services.

• Details of two graduates from Scotland who have been recruited into NESTA’s Academy, a mould-breaking business support and growth initiative that offers seed funding of up to £35,000 to establish new creative businesses.

Residential & P2P support for finalists

The residential stage of the Academy will run from January to the end of February 2006. At the end all those who attend can apply for risk funding of up to £35,000. This is then followed by a nine-month period of non-residential mentoring and training, peer-to-peer support. It will take businesses from pre-start up to being operational. Attending from Scotland are:

Brian Harvey, from Glasgow, who will develop an audio architecture company that offers sound environments to the retail, catering and public sectors. It focuses on re-enforcing brand identities and enhancing consumer experience by utilising 'good sound'.

Bruno Frayling Kelly, from Edinburgh, who wants to create fun and intuitive software for use in primary education. ‘Primary Steps’ is an interactive application that enables children to learn phonics in a new and engaging way. Their system can also be adapted for use to teach a variety of other subjects.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA Chief Executive, said: “Access to the right sort of early stage seed capital and business support is essential to grow businesses of scale, driven by innovation. NESTA’s investment at the earliest stage is designed to ensure that each business has every chance of meeting its high growth potential and adding real value to the Scottish economy."

"Our involvement does not stop at finance," he explained. "We build a system of mentoring and business support around each investee company that creates the networks needed for innovations to realise their commercial potential.”

About NESTA:
NESTA aims to be the strongest single catalyst for innovation in the UK. In everything it does, it is seeking to increase the UK’s capacity to fulfil its vast innovative potential. Through a range of pioneering programmes, it invests at every stage of the innovation process; providing early stage seed capital for promising ideas for new products and services; investing in UK talent to ensure it stays in the UK; and experimenting with new ways of engaging the public in science, technology and the creative industries. www.nesta.org.uk

About NESTA’s investments in Scotland:
NESTA has made two investments totalling more than £200,000 through its Invention & Innovation fund. These are:
MMIC Solutions from Edinburgh received a £180,000 investment to develop key technology that could advance the fight against terrorism . It aims to do this through developing affordable imager pixels for a security imaging system that enables the detection of knives, guns and explosive like semtex. Other markets include automotive radar and high data rate communications
Protective Research Industries (Scotland) Limited from Bargeddie in Glasgow received £25,500 to develop a unique aquamarine coating that stops bacteria and marine life from damaging shipping and fishing nets. Its first use will be in organic fishing farming nets but could move on to be used on racing yachts, dinghies and even super tankers.