A series of 20 projects - including this website - aimed at encouraging Scottish business innovation have recently been completed as part of the "Scottish Innovative Actions Programme".
The projects ranged from a commercialisation initiative involving Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the MIT MediaLab in Boston to a series of projects aimed at helping small and medium sized enterprises to improve their marketing capabilities.
The various projects will be showcased at a special conference in Edinburgh on February 21-22, organised by Strathclyde European Partnership.
(www.scottishinnovativeactions.co.uk)
Related projects included research by Strathclyde University into SME attitudes to marketing. And a unique "channel marketing" project helped three pilot businesses to send senior executives to work with major US corporations Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Freescale Semiconductor on an exchange basis.
A Scottish Enterprise project has examined new methods of fostering and developing business models, with applications across a range of industry.
The Innovative Actions programme also funded Interface, which provides a brokering service for businesses who want to find out more about academic research that may help them (www.interface-online.org.uk).
The Scottish Innovative Actions project is part financed by the European Union, in partnership with the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise.