News
Growth target: Can Scotland's life sciences sector hit £25bn by 2035?
By its own measure, Scotland’s life sciences sector is an overachiever. Leaders hoped it would reach a turnover of £8bn by 2025. Reaching that target, set in 2017, meant doubling the value of the sector within just eight years, driving growth in everything from drug development to agriculture.
Source: Holyrood
The Scottish tech ecosystem is showing significant momentum
Over the past decade or so, Scotland has developed a burgeoning technology ecosystem, with a growing number of companies adding significant value to the economy and supporting innovation in key areas such as net zero and life sciences.
Source: Business Insider
Wobble Genomics at the forefront of RNA Sequencing
Midlothian Science Zone Business Forum took place on Tuesday 18th March 2025 led by Wobble Genomics, specialists in long-read RNA sequencing. This cutting-edge technique of next generation sequencing reads lengthy sequences of RNA molecules, which offers a more comprehensive view of genetic information in the detection of genetic variations, compared to traditional short-read.
Scotland’s Life Sciences Conference & Awards 2025: Uniting industry leaders to shape the future
Scotland’s thriving life sciences sector, a key driver of innovation and economic growth, is set to take centre stage in 2025 with the launch of Scotland’s Life Sciences Conference, sponsored by Moderna.
Source: The Scotsman
More lab space is needed to support Scotland's life sciences boom
Scotland, particularly the central belt, is a powerhouse of life sciences talent. This region boasts a rich synergy between companies, universities, colleges and networks, fostering a collaborative environment that drives innovation. However, a significant challenge threatens to stifle this burgeoning sector, the acute shortage of suitable lab space.
Source: The Scotsman
W2W aims to increase Scottish female angel investor numbers
Scotland’s first all-female business angel syndicate, Investing Women Angels (IWA), and its sister organisation AccelerateHER have launched a new initiative designed to attract more businesswomen into angel investing – an imperative in addressing the equity gap between male and female-led companies.
Hutton hunts for soil ambassadors across Scotland to help dig deep
Scientists at The James Hutton Institute are leading a nationwide soil sampling campaign to help major European project, ECHO, to collect a total of 16,500 samples across Europe.
This call to participate in a citizen science project may be of interest to individuals in Midlothian Science Zone.
If you’d like to become involved as a soil ambassador, find out how you can participate here > https://echosoil.eu/become-an-echo-ambassador
Source: The James Hutton Institute
£4.5 million Edinburgh skills project will boost life sciences sector and NHS
Edinburgh is to become a base for a multi-million-pound project to help address an “acute” skills shortage in the life sciences sector.
The new initiative, known as Resilience, aims to tackle the skills shortage faced by the medicines manufacturing industry in the UK, and the capital’s Heriot-Watt University will be one of the partners delivering the programme.
Source: The Scotsman
A COVID story from the heart of Midlothian
Our lives changed in 2020 in a way no one could have imagined as we faced a world-wide pandemic. On both a global and local scale, the impact has been significant to health, society and the economy for all segments of the population.