News

Launch of a New Digital Trust Centre of Excellence in Scotland
Leading financial and technology experts have set up a new Digital Trust Centre of Excellence in Scotland to make the digital world safer and more secure.
Source: The Scotsman

New stats prove Scotland punching above its weight with 1,663 tech start-ups
Scotland has bucked the trend as technology company incorporations jumped 5 per cent last year, despite a similar slowdown at the UK level, new figures have revealed.
The data shows a total of 1,663 new tech businesses were incorporated in Scotland in 2024, up from 1,553 the previous year.
Source: The Scotsman

Converge seeks 100 most promising academic innovators
Converge has officially launched its 2025 programme, seeking 100 exceptional researchers, creators and inventors from across Scotland’s universities to apply for a coveted place.

Large-scale study focuses on fish health and welfare
An £8.5m, large-scale research partnership seeks to improve the welfare and productivity of farmed salmon in Scotland.
In a project led by the Roslin Institute partnered with the UK’s largest salmon farmer Mowi Scotland, experts will seek to understand how to limit the impact of chronic complex diseases, enabling better health and welfare.

Edinburgh image sensor company emerges from stealth mode
Singular Photonics has emerged from stealth mode, launching a new generation of image sensors based on single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs).
A spin-out from the University of Edinburgh lab of professor Robert Henderson, Singular is one of the first companies to bring advanced computation to SPAD-based image sensing, enabling in-pixel and cross-pixel storage and computations at the lowest light levels to reveal previously invisible details.
Source: Business Insider

Pig studies support ongoing Covid-19 research
Researchers from across the University of Edinburgh and Moredun Research Institute, are collaborating in a study of gene-edited pigs to better understand severe Covid-19, providing insights into disease progression and treatment development.

New vertical farm a first for Scottish education
SRUC has stepped up its commitment to global and local food production and security by becoming the first higher education institution in Scotland to open a commercial-sized vertical farm.
Jim Fairlie MSP, Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, officially opened the £1.8 million SRUC Vertical Farming Innovation Centre – which has received £200,000 from the Scottish Government – at the Edinburgh Campus of Scotland’s Rural College.

Funding boost for fertility technology
Dyneval, a pioneering agriculture fertility technology company has raised £515,772 in a new funding round, including investment from Lifted Ventures, to advance its groundbreaking product, the Dynescan.
The Dynescan is the first semen analyzer capable of measuring semen quality over time under conditions mimicking the reproductive tract.

Application of new technology to make an affordable anti-parasite vaccine
Scientists at the Moredun Research Institute, in Midlothian Science Zone, and the Pirbright Institute, in Surrey, have been awarded a £1.7 million grant over three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a vaccine against a life-threatening parasite of sheep and goats.

‘Cool Calf’ could help accelerate dairy journey to net zero
Hilda may look like an ordinary calf, but the sprightly, Scotland-born animal represents an historic moment for the world’s longest-running livestock genetics project and could help accelerate the dairy industry’s journey to net zero.