News
Converge welcomes latest cohort with “astonishing breadth and depth of innovation”
Congratulations to Arvaan Mukherjee, Co-Founder and CTO of PhytoVenomics, on being selected as a participant in the 2026 Converge cohort ‘KickStart Challenge’, designed for aspiring entrepreneurs to test, validate and prepare to launch an innovative business ideas. The Roslin Innovation Centre tenant start-up is creating safer, more reliable and globally accessible, next-generation anti-venom solutions.
Scotland’s spinout potential is real – and its capital is finally catching up
University Spinouts are having a moment. Investment in the sector hit £3.35bn in 2024, up 44% on the year before, and the institutions driving those headlines – UCL, Oxford, Cambridge – are clustered within a few miles of each other in London. UCL Business’ recent research underscores the point, with academics at a single London university having driven £3.06bn in external investment across 95 active spinout companies over the past five years.
Source: DIGIT
Women, wealth and the future of Scotland’s healthcare sector
Over the next 20 years, Scotland is set to experience a quiet but consequential shift in economic power. As wealth passes from one generation to the next, a growing share will move into the hands of women through inheritance, business exits and entrepreneurship.
Known as the Great Wealth Transfer, this has the potential to influence how capital is deployed, which sectors attract investment, and how Scotland’s business landscape evolves.
Source: The Scotsman
Mid-sized scale-up space “essential” to sustain Scotland’s life sciences sector
New data has revealed that a shortage of specialist laboratory and manufacturing space could slow the growth of Scotland’s life sciences sector - an industry set to surge to £25bn by 2035.
The report, produced by CBRE on behalf of Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, analysed supply and demand for laboratory, office and manufacturing space within Scottish Enterprise’s geographical area, primarily in eastern, central and parts of southern Scotland. .
Source: Insider
International Centre set to transform global animal welfare education
SRUC is set to take a bold new step on the global stage with plans to launch an International Centre for Animal Welfare Science and Education within its School of Veterinary Medicine and Biosciences.
The Centre builds on SRUC’s world-leading expertise in animal behaviour and welfare and brings established global partnerships, deep in-house expertise and a strong commitment to capacity building in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
Introduction to the new Engineering Biology Hub on the Easter Bush Campus
The Midlothian Science Zone Business Forum took place on Tuesday 14th April 2026 at The Roslin Institute, to learn more about the newly established Engineering Biology Hub at the Easter Bush Campus (EB2), highlighting ongoing research projects, research capability and partnership opportunities.
Edinburgh University spinout Exergy3 raises £10m to turn wasted wind power into industrial heat
Exergy3 has closed a £10m seed round to commercialise technology that converts curtailed renewable electricity into high-temperature heat for industrial use, tackling grid waste and factory emissions in one go.
The Edinburgh University spinout has developed modular thermal energy storage units that take surplus power, such as wind generation the grid cannot absorb in real time, and deliver process heat at temperatures ranging from 50°C to 1,200°C.
Source: UK Investor Magazine
Ingenza announces strategic partnership with Ab Biotechnology
Midlothian Science Zone welcome this announcement of a partnership between two companies based on neighbouring science parks 'in the zone'.
The close proximity of Pioneer Group’s Edinburgh Technopole and Pentlands Science Park will enable Ingenza and Ab Biotechnology to share complementary services and deliver a seamless and engaging experience for customers.
Innovative research suggests Bass Rock gannet colony may be stabilising after avian flu outbreak
New research is shedding light on the health of one of the UK’s most important seabird colonies, suggesting it may be stabilising after the devastating 2022 avian flu outbreak. A team from the Scottish Seabird Centre, Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are using cutting-edge technology to better understand one of the world’s largest northern gannet colonies on Bass Rock.
Cloned predecessor to Dolly the sheep goes on permanent show at museum
A cloned sheep that helped pave the way for the creation of Dolly the sheep has gone on show at a rural life museum. Morag and her identical twin Megan were cloned from the same embryo and were the first mammals to be successfully cloned from differentiated cells. Their births in June 1995 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh were hailed as a technical breakthrough and made the birth of Dolly the sheep the following year possible.
Source: STV News