The Scottish Government has announced details of 13 teams to receive support for projects using technology to solve challenges for the public and third sectors under the latest round of its CivTech accelerator programme.
It is providing funding between £350,000 and £800,000 along with workshops and support for each of the projects to deal with a list of challenges as part of CivTech 7.
It said the latest challenges have a strong focus on empowering communities, minority groups and marginalised individuals, as well as including opportunities to help solve environmental problems, and improve transport infrastructure.
The support will culminate in a ‘demo day’ in early February when the project teams will pitch their newly developed products to an audience from the public and third sectors and early stage investors.
The teams to take part are as follows:
- JBA Consulting in partnership with Storm Geomatics will collect underwater geospatial data, which will be used to both reliably detect potentially problematic burrows and assess the risk the burrow presents to infrastructure and people.
- DeepMiner will take an AI approach to enable better targeting and management of public sector support, aligning the services provided by the public sector from the perspective of the recipients.
- VeryConnect is combining gamification with community engagement scoring and integrated events management to allow communities to bring together social capital to connect, grow and maintain relationships.
- Sweco UK will develop an online support toolkit to combine digital route design, 3D visuals, and smart analysis for new approaches to path construction by exploring the re-use of recycled materials, leveraging the opportunities in circular economy.
- Deaf Action will create a platform that shifts the onus for making access arrangements away from British sign language users without excluding them from the process or denying them choice.
- io is developing a solution named Touchstone to support more inclusive access to key public services.
- Novoville and it partners and ZUoS will work on solutions for communities to understand their energy demands and options for energy efficiency and decarbonisation, and to support community collective purchasing.
- GearedApp is developing a solution to drastically reduce the amount of administrative work in processing nursery applications.
- Volunteero’s platform will manage volunteers more efficiently while building an engaged and connected community.
- Sentireal will create a virtual reality, 360 degree immersive experience for users attending court to allow them to experience the situation, reducing any trauma they may experience doing it in a real environment.
- Wyser will use AI to help advisers deal with as many people as possible, by recording case information more easily and allowing them to draw upon the experience of other advisers.
- Hypervine is developing a solution to help homeowners build more energy-efficient homes and meet compliance criteria.
- Diagonal Works’ solution is aimed at providing value to local authorities by reducing the cost of baseline research, and improving outcomes by linking projects to strategic objectives at the start of the planning process.
Ivan McKee (pictured), minister for business, trade, tourism and enterprise for Scotland, said: “The success of CivTech is incredible to see. The £6 million in extra funding from the Scottish Government this year has bolstered the challenges and created some incredible opportunities for third sector organisations to get involved.
“It’s great to see such a broad range of challenges met with exciting proposed solutions.
“In Scotland we need to be at the forefront of innovation to drive job creation and investment and to help tackle major global issues such as the climate emergency, biodiversity, care and wellbeing, and energy consumption. The CivTech programme plays a vital role in bringing the public and private sectors together in a collaborative effort to effect positive change.”
The Scottish Government added that companies receiving support under the CivTech 6 round have so far received follow-on contracts worth a total of £2.5 million.
