Innovate UK

Driving UK growth through Edinburgh’s City Region’s innovative ecosystem 🌟 This morning, we marked an important milestone for our partnership with Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Region and the launch of Innovate UK’s 9th Local Action Plan.  Co-created with leaders across Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region and Scottish Enterprise, this new plan strengthens our commitment to support business innovation, harness local strengths, and unlock new growth opportunities for the region.   Dr. Stella Peace, Interim Executive Chair at Innovate UK, and Dean Cook, MBA, FRSB, Executive Director of Place and Global, joined Cllr Jane Meagher, Leader of The City of Edinburgh Council, Adrian Gillespie, CEO of Scottish Enterprise, Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, Principal, and Christina Boswell, Vice Principal, Research and Enterprise at The University of Edinburgh. Launching the plan at Edinburgh Futures Institute—a cutting edge space dedicated to learning, research, and innovation at the University of Edinburgh. Through our partnership, we will work with businesses and innovation leaders to: - Develop three priority innovation clusters—Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing, Health Innovation, and Financial Services and Fintech 📈 - Leverage the city region’s deep underpinning expertise in AI, informatics, and robotics to tackle industry challenges, attract investment, and drive business growth 🚀 - Strengthen business innovation support to ensure inclusive growth across the region 🤝 - Create compelling investment propositions and joint promotion strategies, connecting regional growth clusters to global markets, opportunities and the new Industrial Strategy 🌍 - Ensure industry voices shape the development and delivery of this Action Plan, driving economic growth 💡 As the UK’s innovation agency, we prioritise Place—ensuring that regional innovation thrives and contributes to national economic growth.   Learn more about the Regional Innovation Action Plan 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gxaiiWAA #BusinessInnovation #Innovation #Edinburgh #Scotland #Collaboration Robert Martin | Laura Smith | Kezia Williamson | Jane Martin | David McLay | Sarah Murray | Nicola Anderson

Continuing our focus on plant-based protein innovation, we're highlighting another success story made possible with support from the Innovate UK system. Jampa's (rebranding as Cock & Bull Co.) has a range of plant-based products focused on clean label, 100% natural ingredient decks, that are totally taste and texture driven. Working with the University of Nottingham and Canadian food manufacturer Tartistes, they are developing their products from a nutritional point of view to really start matching meat or animal-based products. Our support: - Grant funding through our bilateral partnership with Protein Industries Canada (PIC) - Application support for their Canada-UK project through Innovate UK Business Connect - Engagement on an international level to access the North America market, specifically Canada, and find partners with support from Innovate UK Business Growth. "It's enabled us to build partnerships. It's enabled us to collaborate. It's enabled us to make connections that we would not have otherwise made and essentially accelerate that expansion of our business, potentially by years." - Richard Fox, Chef founder, Cock & Bull #PlantBasedProteins

Albotherm have developed temperature responsive technology that aims to reduce carbon emissions in sectors such as food production. 🌱 With support from Innovate UK, CEO Molly Allington and CTO Dr Sian Fussell have raised £160K of equity, £1.2M of seed funding, and a total of £800K in Innovate UK grant funding. Watch the full video below 👇 #InnovateToGrow #CropManagement #Investment

Building on last week’s focus on plant-based protein innovation, we’re sharing more stories on how Innovate UK is supporting businesses in this space. Adamo Foods, a UK-based food tech company based in Nottingham, has been revolutionising the vegan market by developing deliciously authentic whole-cut meat alternatives using mycelium, with a proprietary fermentation technology. Innovate UK Business Connect has played a crucial role in Adamo Foods' innovation journey, supporting them with bids into several funding competitions, being on hand throughout these successful projects, and introducing them to investor readiness support for the Investor Partnership grant. Their latest grant funding will help Adamo Foods implement a unique commercial-scale mycelium manufacturing process to launch ultra-realistic whole-cut meat alternatives. "We are hugely grateful to Innovate UK Business Connect for all their support for Adamo during our early years. They’re a perfect partner for an early-stage, highly innovative company like ours, helping us lay the groundwork for global growth." - Nick Wood, COO of Adamo. Find out more: https://ow.ly/AVAT50VjJUc #PlantBasedProteins #FutureFoodInnovation

Supporting sustainable farming practices with support from Innovate UK 🌾 - Hear Ahmad Mohseni, CEO of FlexFarming, explain how Innovation is helping it reach its goal of producing 10,000 tonnes of sustainably produced strawberries for the UK market each year.🍓 It has benefited from bespoke investment readiness support, and been helped to navigate the investor landscape. Watch the full video below 👇 #InnovateToGrow #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentReady

The UK’s foundation industries, including metals, ceramics, glass, chemicals, paper and cement, are worth £52bn annually to the UK economy 💡 These industries are at a pivotal point as we push towards net zero. Resilience, adaptability, and innovation are crucial to their futures, requiring investment in research, technology and collaboration to drive sustainability across industries. UK Research and Innovation's Transforming Foundation Industries (TFI) Challenge, delivered by @Innovate UK, @EPSRC and @ESRC, has produced a celebration brochure exploring the impact of innovation and the benefits of cross-sector investment in building a more sustainable future. Key highlights: 💡 - Establishment of £54m Glass Futures research and technology centre - Unlocked £275m industry follow-on investment - 297 industry collaborations - Creation of Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ As the Challenge completes, its legacy persists via solid collaborations and new innovations being advanced industry-wide. Read the full celebration report here: https://lnkd.in/eKZHgYSW #FoundationIndustries #Achievements #Innovation #Collaboration #Legacy

This week we're highlighting some plant-based protein innovations that are being developed across the UK with support from Innovate UK. Innovate UK Better Food For All competition has invested in projects to improve food quality, create functional foods, boost nutrition, develop new proteins, and extend the shelf life of healthy and fresh foods. The The Good Pulse Company's project, in partnership with the University of Nottingham, has developed a groundbreaking process to create “Cheese from Peas” - a natural, plant-based cheese ingredient made from whole yellow peas with zero waste. "Innovate UK is willing to take the risk to support British innovation." - Cesar Torres, MBA, Founder & CEO, The Good Pulse Co. #PlantBasedProteins #FutureFoodInnovation

This week we're highlighting some plant-based protein innovations that are being developed across the UK with support from Innovate UK. Innovate UK's Better Food For All competition has invested in projects to improve food quality, create functional foods, boost nutrition, develop new proteins, and extend the shelf life of healthy and fresh foods. Valogen Biosciences is tackling age-related nutritional challenges with a sustainable, plant-based ingredient that enhances food through fortification or supplementation. Working in partnership with the University of Plymouth, they are taking agricultural feedstocks and converting them into products that are better for human consumption. "Help from Innovate UK has been invaluable. We've been able to fund getting our pilot plant off the ground." - Harry Ross CTO, Valogen Biosciences #PlantBasedProteins #FutureFoodInnovation

The Next Generation Professional & Financial Services Programme AI for Services 2025 Report is now live. Together with the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council and Whitecap Consulting the Report covers fresh insights from the UK's innovation landscape, drawing from extensive research, stakeholder interviews, and industry surveys. Since 2018, the Next Generation Professional and Financial Services Programme has been delivered as part of UK Research and Innovation. It is designed to empower professionals in accounting, law and financial services with opportunities to harness digital technologies effectively and responsibly, whilst supporting economic growth and the UK’s opportunity to be a global leader. Download a copy of the report here and discover more about latest digital innovations and impact stories across these sectors at https://ow.ly/qP1E50Vh4k5 #NextGenPFS #technology #innovation #accounting #law #legal #finance #insurance #InnovateUK

This week we're highlighting some plant-based protein innovations being developed across the UK with support from Innovate UK. Innovate UK and BBSRC’s Novel Low Emission Food Production Systems competition has invested in industry-led, collaborative projects looking at the development of alternative proteins such as plant-based and lab-grown options, which can have a lower impact on land and water resources. Rootiful, a plant-based ingredients company, is working in collaboration with the University of Leeds and Baker Perkins, to explore the boundaries of current low-emission processes for texturising proteins, and the feasibility of alternative technologies to produce alternative proteins in support of the UK’s capability to supply and advance the alternative protein market. "Innovate UK have actually helped us move from an idea, to a product that's on the market, much faster, and a much better product." - Sarah Gaunt, Director, SPG Innovation. Watch the full video here - https://ow.ly/yA2a50Vgg2L #WomenInnovators #PlantBasedProteins #FutureFoodInnovation