Press release: Digital innovators announced as CivTech 7 reaches the Accelerator stage

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 CivTech 7, along with news about the successes of last year’s alumni. CivTech 6 alumni companies have already collectively received £2.5 million in follow-on contracts following their successes with the Scottish Government’s flagship Accelerator programme.

 CivTech is a Scottish Government programme that tackles challenges facing public sector organisations. Its aims are simple: to create better public services for citizens while boosting Scotland’s economy by helping innovative companies launch new products with global potential.

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 contract value available for each Challenge is between £350,000 and £800,000. 

Companies and entrepreneurs from across the UK and beyond have been competing to win a place on the Scottish Government’s prestigious Seventh programme since its launch on 30 May.

The CivTech 7 Accelerator will provide the winning teams with an intense programme of workshops and support as they develop their products and businesses over a 15-week period. This means that all teams - whatever stage they’re at - have the best possible grounding to take their products forward.

Ivan McKee, 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 CivTech 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.

This year's Challenges, Sponsors and winners are:

Challenge 1: How can technology help us 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 we use data about businesses 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: this solution 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.

Challenge 3: How can technology help people self-organise and build meaningful connections as the beating heart of Scotland’s global business community?

Challenge Sponsor: Entrepreneurial Scotland Foundation, Scottish Government (Economy Directorate), Scottish Government (Digital Directorate, CivTech)

Challenge Winner: VeryConnect are combining gamification with community engagement scoring and integrated events management to allow communities to bring together a wealth of social capital to connect, grow and maintain true 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 Ltd  will develop an online support Toolkit that will combine digital route design, 3D visuals, and smart analysis to challenge the status quo of path construction by exploring the reuse of recycled materials, 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 do we use Artificial Intelligence, data and digital technologies 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 Ltd: its solution, Touchstone, will be user-centric, 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: Two businesses have been invited to solve this Challenge together, Novoville and partners; and ZUoS Limited. Solutions will include support for communities to understand their energy demands and options for energy efficiency and 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 are developing a solution to drastically 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 & witnesses prepare for the experience?

Challenge Sponsors: Victim Support Scotland; Scottish Government (Directorate for Justice)

Challenge Winner: Sentireal Ltd will create a virtual reality innovation which simulates a 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.

Challenge 11:How can technology support Citizens Advice advisors to quickly deliver the best possible outcome for their clients using data & collective expertise?

Challenge Sponsor: Citizens Advice Scotland

Challenge Winner: Wyser will use AI to help advisers 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 our citizens & 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 are developing a solution to help homeowners build a more energy-efficient home and meet compliance criteria. This will improve the quality of domestic building projects as well as reduce delays to building projects, saving time and money.

Challenge 13: How can we use technology to better understand the issues facing our 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.