Provision of Tech Scalers

Last year, Mark Logan was commissioned by Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, to undertake a review of how Scotland’s technology sector can help drive the country’s economic recovery in the wake of the damage and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review (STER) was published in August 2020. Its recommendations are primarily concerned with stimulating and accelerating the maturity of Scotland’s “Technology Ecosystem”. By this it means the system, in its widest sense, that supports and nurtures technology businesses in Scotland, from the early start-up phase through to fully scaled maturity. The output of this ecosystem and any resulting contract, should be a stream of technology start-ups that reach sustained profitability, including a significant proportion that do so at scale; with consequent benefits in opportunity for the people of Scotland through the creation of high value jobs, increased tax revenues and extending our country’s legacy and tradition of economic innovation. STER’s recommendations are intended to significantly improve upon current outcomes against these goals. The centrepiece recommendation is that Scotland should establish a national network of tech-scalers: world class institutions offering a mix of co-location benefits; market square activity and first rate commercial education. STER presents a vision of tech-scalers as a hybrid model, combining the most effective services traditionally offered separately by incubator and accelerator programmes. Tech-scalers will combine best-practice in incubation, intensive founder education in Internet Economy skillsets, social and networking infrastructure and potentially, depending on the progress of the wider programme, integrated funding for start-ups. Access to all services must be provided both physically and in a fully-virtualised form, enabling country-wide participation in Scotland’s high-technology economy. Additional information: Link to the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review - https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-technology-ecosystem-review/