The Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund (IICF) has launched a round for 2026 to support companies out with Scotland who are exploring investing or basing a presence here.  They can apply for up to £10k to fund collaborations with Scotland’s universities, colleges and research institutes, focussed on priority opportunity areas including health tech, energy transition, space and food & drink innovation.

Holiferm and Organica UK have announced a strategic combination, strengthened by a continued partnership with Sadorp. The transaction brings together Holiferm’s biosurfactant innovation and manufacturing with Organica’s formulation and finished-product capability, creating a combined business spanning ingredient development, advanced applications, product manufacturing, and commercialisation.

Ingenza, a world-leading protein CRDMO were delighted to welcome Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, to its inGenius® Building where he chose to announce his legislative agenda for his Programme for Government. 

Vital funding to kick-start business-academic partnerships has been secured, to support new products, processes, services and workforce practices.

Scottish researchers have developed a promising new approach to protecting seed potato crops from one of the sector's most damaging diseases by harnessing bacteria's own natural defence systems. The technology, supported in its early stages by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), is now heading towards commercialisation through a prospective new spin-out company, Casdu Crop Solutions.

Carbogenics USA establishes its first US manufacturing hub with support from the State of New Mexico, strengthening regional partnerships and accelerating sustainable carbon innovation.

Applications are now open for the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC) BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition, offering up to £10,000 towards scale-up project costs to help companies and academic teams develop their bioprocesses through its FlexBIO facility at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Beta Bugs Ltd., a leader in Black Soldier Fly (BSF) genetics, today announced that it has raised £800,000 in a new funding round from its existing investors.

Scottish EDGE invites applications from businesses across all sectors, whether pre-trading or up to five years in trading. Winners will receive a share of a £1.5m prize pot, along with access to a network of industry experts and support opportunities.

Take Root Bio worked with Heriot-Watt University to successfully turn salty whey, a high-volume by-product from cheese production, into a widely used fuel called bioethanol.

An Edinburgh-based spinout developing a new way to measure hormone levels in real time has secured £1.2 million to explore how its technology could provide new insights into women’s hormone-related conditions and support improved diagnosis and treatment.

Evonik is using Celtic Renewables’ bio-butanol to produce ECOHANCE^® Soft BOL, a sustainable emollient for cosmetics and personal care products.

The Water Discovery Challenge has awarded £100k of funding to Carbogenics to develop FilaChar, a patent-pending carbon material that can improve wastewater treatment and protect rivers while reducing costs and emissions.

The first Open Call of the European Circular Innovation Valley (ECIV) has successfully demonstrated the strong interest and engagement of European stakeholders in advancing the circular economy. With high-quality proposals and solid interregional collaboration, this first milestone sets the stage for future opportunities through Open Call 2 and the upcoming Experimentation Fund.

Starting in July 2026, a new collaborative project with Carbogenics, Scottish Water, and the Environmental Research Institute from the University of the. Highlands and Islands, and supported by IBioIC, will investigate an innovative approach to addressing one of the water sector's emerging challenges: the removal of Emerging Contaminants (pharmaceutical, PFAS, Personal Care Products, Hormones/endocrine-disrupting compounds, Pesticides, Microplastics) from wastewater.

A prospective University of Strathclyde spinout is developing a process that turns low-value mineral waste into carbon-negative cement replacement materials, helping reduce emissions from cement production while permanently storing captured carbon dioxide (CO2).

Global food systems are entering a period where climate stability can no longer be assumed, and few commodities illustrate that shift more clearly than cocoa. In the UK, chocolate prices have risen sharply, with the Office for National Statistics reporting a 17.5% year-on-year increase in October 2025. An immediate opportunity may lie in making better use of what already exists. During processing, cocoa beans are separated from shells and husks, which are produced in large volumes and typically used in low-value applications such as compost or mulch, despite still containing useful flavour compounds. Fermtech’s Koji Cocoa approach builds on this principle by using cocoa by-products already generated within established processing systems.

Scotland’s bioeconomy is often discussed as a future opportunity, yet in Grangemouth, the country’s largest industrial cluster, that future is already beginning to take shape. Following the end of crude oil refining at the site in 2025, Grangemouth is entering a new phase - one that will be defined by how effectively it can adapt its industrial strengths to a changing global landscape.

Sun Bear Biofuture, a UK based biotech startup making sustainable fats and oils from fermentation, has completed its first successful production run using a custom-built pilot plant at less than 10% of the average setup cost.

Firefinch Software publishes practical guidance to help instrumentation companies unlock GMP-regulated markets - and avoid the compliance pitfalls that slow scale-up.