By Scott Wright

MORE than £700 million of innovation expenditure will be leveraged on the back of support from Scotland’s main public economic development agency, it has been forecast.

Scottish Enterprise has approved £120m in grant funding and equity investment for innovation activities in the 2021-22 financial year, with a total of 260 projects supported.

And the agency declared this investment has been calculated to deliver a further £502m of investment from the private sector, in addition to £86m from public sector partners.

Scottish Enterprise said its funding this financial year has supported private firms developing solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, spin-outs from leading universities, and investment in infrastructure at Scottish innovation centres.

The agency noted it had contributed to £9m of growth funding raised by University of Edinburgh life sciences spin-out Kynos Therapeutics, which is developing a treatment to help regulate the immune system and protect patients against tissue damage caused by a mitochondrial enzyme known as KMO.

And it awarded a grant of £2.5m to North British Distillery in Edinburgh, which makes grain spirit for blended whisky, to help it develop and deliver a modernised distilling process, with the aim of significantly reducing its carbon footprint.

Adrian Gillespie, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said: “Scottish companies are innovating to create greater opportunities for a more prosperous future, as well as delivering solutions to global challenges in areas like climate change, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences. It’s great to see a sustained appetite among our business base to continue investing in innovation despite the current headwinds, while at the same time the private and public sectors continue to invest significantly in our first-class innovation centres.

“These activities will ensure Scotland remains a leading innovation nation.”