CivTech has announced its latest cohort of innovators set to use technology to solve real-life challenges facing public and third sector organisations in Scotland.
The programme is announcing its successful 14 teams for the CivTech 7 group.
CivTech 6 alumni companies have already collectively received £2.5m in follow-on contracts following their successes with the Scottish Government’s flagship accelerator programme.
The programme aims to tackle challenges facing public sector organisations, with the latest set having a focus on empowering communities, minority groups and marginalised individuals, as well as including opportunities to help solve environmental problems and improve transport infrastructure.
The contract value available for each challenge is between £350,000 and £800,000.
The accelerator will provide the winning teams with workshops and support as they develop products and businesses over a 15-week period.
Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise Ivan McKee said: “The £6m 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.
“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 accelerator will culminate in a ‘demo day’ held in early February, where the selected teams pitch their newly developed products to an audience of several hundred people from across the public sector, the third sector and the private sector — including early stage investors.
CivTech is the world’s first government-run accelerator for digital public services. It was launched in 2016 to inject innovation into how the public sector uses technology to improve the lives of Scotland’s citizens.
Since its first launch, CivTech has set 77 Challenges for entrepreneurs and companies, with 85 companies going through to the accelerator stage.
Challenge 1 : How can technology help detect beaver burrows and assess the associated risk to public and private interests?
Challenge Sponsor: NatureScot
Challenge Winner: 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.
Challenge 2: How can data about businesses help to transform the design, delivery and evaluation of business support services across Scotland’s public sector?
Challenge Sponsor: Scottish Government (Directorate for Covid Business Resilience and Support)
Challenge Winner: DeepMiner, whose solution will take an artificial intelligence 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.
Challenge 3: How can technology help people self-organise and build meaningful connections as the heart of Scotland’s business community?
Challenge Sponsor: Entrepreneurial Scotland Foundation, Scottish Government (Economy Directorate), Scottish Government (Digital Directorate, CivTech)
Challenge Winner: VeryConnect aims to combine gamification with community engagement, scoring and integrated events management to allow communities to bring together social capital to grow and maintain meaningful relationships.
Challenge 4: How can technology unlock the power of the bike, stimulating demand for cycling infrastructure and support south of Scotland communities?
Challenge Sponsor: South of Scotland Enterprise and Censis Technology Solutions
Challenge Winner: Sweco UK will develop an online support toolkit to combine digital route design, 3D visuals and smart analysis, exploring the reuse of recycled materials and leveraging the opportunities in circular economy.
Challenge 5: How might technology help match British Sign Language (BSL) users and their required interpreters more easily and equitably?
Challenge Sponsors: Scottish Government (Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights)
Challenge Winner: Deaf Action will create a platform that shifts the onus for making access arrangements away from the BSL user, without excluding them from the process, or denying them choice.
Challenge 6: How can artificial intelligence, data and digital technologies be used to enable more inclusive access to public services, starting with disabled people?
Challenge Sponsors: Scottish Government: Digital Directorate; Directorate for Digital Health & Care; Directorate for Social Care and National Care Service; NHS 24
Challenge Winner: Insightsdriven.io, whose solution Touchstone will be driven by the needs of users with lived experience resulting in more inclusive access to key public services.
Challenge 7: How can technology help communities and households understand their energy needs and work with local suppliers towards sustainable energy solutions?
Challenge Sponsor: South of Scotland Enterprise and Censis Technology Solutions
Challenge Winner: Novoville and ZUoS will partner to support communities in understanding their energy demands and options for decarbonisation, while supporting community collective purchase.
Challenge 8: How can technology aid parents through the admissions process for an ever-changing statutory entitlement to early learning and childcare?
Challenge Sponsor: West Lothian Council
Challenge Winner: GearedApp is developing a solution to reduce the amount of administrative work when it comes to processing nursery applications.
Challenge 9: How can technology enable organisations and volunteers to organise while expanding and evidencing the positive impact of their work across Scotland?
Challenge Sponsors: White Ribbon Scotland; Scottish Government (Directorate for Justice); Citizens Advice Scotland
Challenge Winner: Volunteero’s platform will manage volunteers more efficiently while building an engaged and connected community of their volunteers.
Challenge 10: How can technology reduce the impact of giving evidence in court by helping victims and witnesses prepare for the experience?
Challenge Sponsors: Victim Support Scotland; Scottish Government (Directorate for Justice)
Challenge Winner: Sentireal will create a virtual reality scenario which simulates an immersive experience for users attending court, allowing them to experience the situation, reducing any trauma they may experience doing it in a real environment.
Challenge 11: How can technology support Citizens Advice advisors to quickly deliver the best possible outcome for their clients using data and collective expertise?
Challenge Sponsor: Citizens Advice Scotland
Challenge Winner: Wyser will use artificial intelligence to offer advice to as many people as possible, by recording case information more easily and allowing them to draw upon the experience of other advisers.
Challenge 12: How can technology transform Building Standards Compliance to empower citizens and contractors to produce safer and more energy-efficient buildings?
Challenge Sponsor: Scottish Government (Directorate for Local Government and Housing) Building Standards Division
Challenge Winner: Hypervine is developing a solution to help homeowners build a more energy-efficient home and meet compliance criteria, aiming to improve the quality of domestic building projects, as well as reduce delays to building projects.
Challenge 13: How can we use technology to better understand the issues facing town centres, and be a catalyst for revitalisation?
Challenge Sponsor: Scottish Borders Council and South of Scotland Enterprise
Challenge Winner: Diagonal Works’ solution will provide value to local councils by reducing the cost of baseline research, and improving outcomes by linking projects to strategic objectives at the start of the planning process.
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