The Data Lab, Scotland’s Innovation Centre for Data and AI, welcomes the recent Scottish Budget announcement to invest £321 million in enterprise agencies to help support productivity and innovation in Scotland.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy report on drivers of innovation and productivity in the UK shows that the further away from London you get, the less new-to-market innovations we see. Typically, we see businesses apply for lower amounts, and projects tend to be less radical than, for example, organisations in the South East and Greater London.
At The Data Lab, we’re on a mission to shift this trend and ensure that Scotland seizes the opportunity to attract more investment north of the border.
Heather Thomson, Interim CEO of The Data Lab, said,
“We welcome the investment in enterprise agencies, supporting emerging tech, including AI, and programmes like Techscaler, to support new-to-market innovations in Scotland.
“With the rapid and continuing advancement of technologies, including data and AI and its applications, Innovation Centres across Scotland are supporting companies to navigate these tech developments, advancing groundbreaking ideas, and accelerating these projects into new markets.”
Heather’s comments were featured in round-ups of the budget by DIGIT, Silicon Scotland and FutureScot on the 5 of December.