Opportunities
Collaboration Prize
Business GatewayThe Collaboration Prize encourages businesses to consider collaboration and pitch an idea for a new consortium co-operative. Up to three winners will be selected to receive £5,000 each and up to 10 days of consultancy support to scope out the initial concept idea.
Businesses of any size and type (company, partnership, sole trader) can apply but you must:
Be based in Scotland
Have identified potential partners for the proposed collaborative venture
During the application period, Business Gateway will be running 'Collaborating for Growth' workshops across Scotland to help businesses scope relevant projects. The best ideas to emerge from these workshops have a chance of winning.
Why should I consider a consortium co-operative?
Co-operatives are collaborative vehicles that play an important role in creating globally competitive businesses. They enable employees, businesses and communities to work together to fulfil shared interests.
Example scenarios
Restaurants consortium for food waste management
From 2013 legislation requires food outlets to segregate food waste and dispose of each waste type separately - a major concern for small restaurants for whom compliance will be difficult and expensive. A consortium co-operative, owned and run by the restaurants, could address this by providing technical advice, waste uplifts and an income from sale of the waste (as an input to renewable energy generation). In this way the consortium model could support the sustainability of both the environment and the businesses.
Joint tendering consortia
Scotland's most dynamic and ambitious small businesses can fail to win the larger more profitable contracts because, as individual businesses, they don’t meet scale criteria. They can overcome this by forming a consortium co-operative, collectively owned and run by its member businesses, with each contributing to delivery of the contract. Joint tendering through a consortium is acceptable (in some cases favoured) for public sector procurement, and is popular in the creative industries and tourism where member businesses often offer complementary services.
Breweries consortium
Scotland's many small breweries could benefit significantly by collaborating with each other. For example, while they may compete with each other in the local market, by forming a consortium co-operative they could share the costs and risks of entry to export markets. If the breweries purchase similar ingredients – say barley or hops - the consortium could negotiate quantity discounts on behalf of all the members, thus reducing their input costs and improving business performance.
More about consortium co-operatives
How will ideas be assessed?
Applications will be assessed and scored on the following criteria:
Economic impact (business growth, scale of the project, jobs created or retained, cost reductions, improved efficiencies, improved market penetration)
Importance to key sectors of the Scottish economy
Commitment of members to work collaboratively
Level of innovation and creativity
Sustainability of the business model
Who decides the winners?
A judging panel will review all applications and select up to three concept ideas to benefit from the prize. The panel will comprise:
Sarah Deas, Chief Executive, Co-operative Development Scotland
Hugh Lightbody, Business Gateway
Iain Macdonald, GlobalScot, Previoulsy Director General of International Co-operative Alliance
Key dates
All applications will be assessed after the deadline of 31 July 2012. The winners will be announced in August 2012.
29 March 2012 Launch at the First Minister’s Reception at Edinburgh Castle
1 April to 31 July 2012 Call for entries and four workshops will be held by Business Gateway
31 July 2012 Closing date for applications
August 2012 Winners announcement
February 2013 Deadline for winners to access consultancy support
How do I apply?
Submit your application using our online application form
EnviroAPP
An exciting opportunity has arisen for any budding software developers out there.
By 2020, Scotland has committed to reduce carbon emissions by 42%.The Scottish Government, SSE, SEPA and Microsoft have launched a national competition to create a software application that helps Scotland’s SMEs respond to these ambitious climate change goals by measuring, managing and reducing their carbon emissions.
A grant of £50,000 is available for anyone who can think of an idea for an app that will help small businesses contribute to Scotland’s climate change targets.
To find out more about this opportunity click here.
Deadline 18th of May 2012
Following a very successful pilot of the follow on Innovation Voucher Scheme we are pleased to announce another call. Contact us at Interface for more information on innovative solutions to designing/developing new products.
0131 651 4791
www.interface-online.org.uk
Hungry for investment? Check out our menu of funding opportunities
A slice of a €36 million European funding pie is up for grabs for Scottish food and drink businesses with the appetite for innovation.
The Eco-innovation fund can cater for up to 50% of eligible costs for cooking up worthwhile projects which reduce the environmental impact of doing business and promote the more efficient use of resources and raw materials.
Priorities for the fund for this year are likely to include food & drink, as well as recycling, sustainable building products, greener business and water.
Projects already enjoying funding from the Eco-innovation fund include one which seeks to recover CO2 from fermentation processes for use in the production of beer and soft drinks.
To be considered for funding, projects must be economically viable in the long term and be able to be adapted for the benefit of the wider market. Eco-innovation looks to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation. It therefore does not fund Research and Development activities.
The main mechanism for distributing research funding within the EU is the €50 billion Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological Development.
FP7 encourages companies and organisations to work together, form bidding partnerships and pioneer groundbreaking research and is open to both businesses and universities and research institutes.
A new series of FP7 funding calls are due to announced shortly in July of this year and we already know that food & drink and related industries will be among the priority sectors.
For dessert, Scottish SMEs are being urged to taste some of the assistance available from Sustainable Food & Drink, the joint venture support scheme whipped up between the European Regional Development Fund and SEEKIT.
Sustainable Food & Drink serves up free support - up to eight days of private consultancy - to help businesses cut their carbon emissions, save energy, slash waste and boost their networking and collaboration efforts.
Enterprise Europe Network Scotland offers gourmet support and can ensure you have the right ingredients to launch successful funding bids.
Anis Mourad of Enterprise Europe Network said: "Food and drink is a real growth industry in Scotland and one where we can rightly claim to lead the world in terms of quality and innovation.
"It's not just food and drink producers who can benefit from accessing European funding - the industry in Scotland encompasses everything from biotechnology to packaging.
"Some of these funds can play a major role in bringing new technologies to market and offer tremendous opportunities for helping Scotland remain at the forefront of the global industry.
"Enterprise Europe Network can short-cut the process of accessing these funds and also help link Scottish businesses up with suitable research or commercial partners overseas."
More information on Eco-innovation is available from their website.
Further Information on Sustainable Food & Drink can be obtained from their website.
To register your interest in FP7, contact Enterprise Europe Network at info@enterprise-europe-scotland.com or on +44 (0)141 228 2667.