WIREDGOV

More than 2000 jobs are expected to be created over the next five years at three new innovation centres being launched yesterday by the First Minister.

Supported by £30 million of public funding, the centres – supported by the Scottish Funding Council and led by the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh – will concentrate on developing world-leading Scottish technology and life sciences.

In their first five years, the three centres are projected to create more than 2000 jobs.

The announcement was made by Alex Salmond during a visit to the new Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. One of the new centres, focusing on stratified medicine and innovation, will be built at the new Southern– one of Europe’s largest hospital sites.

The remaining two centres will develop state-of-the-art sensors and imaging systems and digital health technologies ensuring that Scotland continues to be a pioneer in life sciences, innovative technology, ideas and development. 

Mr Salmond said:

“Scotland has always been a world leader in innovation and this new funding of £30 million, made through the Scottish Funding Council, for the innovation centres reinforces the Scottish Government’s commitment to Science and technology and secures Scotland’s place as a world leader in life sciences, innovative technology, ideas and development.

“Moreover, they are expected to create 2000 jobs over their first five years – an enormous number of jobs in a highly-skilled and high value field.

“This is an exciting new collaboration between all parts of public life, with Scottish industry, Higher Education institutions, multinationals, our small and medium sized enterprises and our public sector partners working together to provide solutions to demand-led problems facing industry in Scotland by supporting innovation for future growth.

“Innovation Centres offer game changing opportunities for collaboration between our academic and business base. The investment and partnership model is unique and their potential for growth is huge.”

Scottish Funding Council chair John McClelland, said:

“This is the first of a planned series of Scottish Funding Council investments to establish Innovation Centres for Scotland’s key industries. These centres will harness academic and entrepreneurial innovation to create jobs and accelerate economic growth in Scotland.”

Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, where two of the innovation centres focusing on Stratified medicine and sensors and imaging systems will be housed, said:

“We’re enormously proud that the University of Glasgow will be home to two world-leading innovation centres focusing on stratified medicine and sensor systems.

“Both of our innovation centres will be perfectly positioned to advance understanding of cutting-edge science and make a lasting contribution to the country’s economy. Equally importantly, the breakthroughs which they make will provide real benefits to the quality of life of people all around the world.”

The third innovation centre will be the Digital Health Institute Scotland, which will focus on new technologies enabling health care and provision away from hospitals and institutions to facilitate independent living. 

DHI chair Professor George Crooks OBE, said:

“We have ambitious plans to revolutionise the health service efficiencies in Scotland and at the same time improve patient experiences, as well as nurturing and inspiring our entrepreneurs to rise to the challenge and ensure Scotland remains at the forefront of the sector.”

Peter Silvester, President Europe, Middle East & Africa of Life technologies said: 

“The Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre is a ground breaking project that represents a real opportunity to change the way healthcare will be practiced. Life Technologies will provide facilities and the genetic analysis platform with its semiconductor based, Ion Proton DNA sequencing technology, at a speed, accuracy and cost that would have been impossible just a few months ago.  The vision for this project is to combine an individual’s detailed genomic data with more traditional patient information to enable faster, more accurate and effective clinical decisions.  This is an inflection point in the history of medical research, and there is much more to come.”

New South Glasgow Hospitals

General Information

• As part of Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s programme to modernise health services a new 1109 bedded adult hospital and a 256 bedded children’s hospital are being built on the Southern General Campus.
• The new £842m publicly funded New South Glasgow Hospitals will see an integrated children’s and adult hospital built on the Southern General Hospital site.
• The new hospitals will provide high quality services which are timely, accessible and consistently available by providing local access to core medical and surgical services and consolidating specialist and tertiary services on fewer sites within the city. 
• The project is currently on time and on budget.
• The first stage of the new development, the Laboratory Block (£75.8m ex VAT) completed March 2012 and became operational in June 2012. The Adult and Children's Hospitals commenced work on site in late March 2011 and the full development is planned to be operational/ in service by the end of June 2015. The final completion of works including landscaping etc is planned for summer 2016.
• The New South Glasgow Hospitals project established a number of key economic targets to be incorporated into the project delivery, with a particular focus on Targeted Training and Recruitment. The project set a target of 250 new entrants recruits, including 88 apprentices. To date the project has delivered 190 new entrants, including 54 apprenticeships. The project has also supported over 140 work placements for young people and has dedicated engagement programmes with local primary and secondary schools. To deliver the above targets the project has established a dedicated training and recruitment centre on site, which offers support to contractors in meeting recruitment needs. Moving beyond construction related training, the project through the main contractor, has supported and part funded a Centre for Healthcare Excellence at Cardonald College. This will equip young people with the skills and competencies to pursue a future career in healthcare. In relation to SMEs and Social Enterprises sub-contract opportunities are advertised through the project website and Glasgow Business Portal. This is supported by tailored events for SMEs and Social Enterprises, with over 800 businesses engaged.