The next chapter for CivTech

Mark Elliott, CivTech Programme Director

At the end of March an era for CivTech came to an end: we closed the doors on our much-loved CivTech Studio at Codebase, Edinburgh for the last time.  

We’ve been in the building since we first opened our Studio way back in August 2016 - just forty minutes before we opened the CivTech 1 Exploration Stage up for business! We were - just like just about every tech start-up - ‘laying the tracks even as the train comes into town’, or ‘building the airplane as it’s taxiing on the runway’, or ‘skating on thin ice with the sound of cracking at our heels’ – whatever metaphor you choose, we were there. It exemplified the speed at which we were scrambling to set CivTech up and have continued to operate. And the excitement we felt when the first 100 people walked in, keen to win a place on the Accelerator has not dissipated either. 

The Studio has been a big part of that. 

In the first days, we wanted to locate at Codebase because, as a new and untested proposition, we felt it vital we locate to the centre of the tech start-up scene [a shout out to Morag Angus at the Scottish Government’s Property and Construction Division for making this possible!]. And – brutally truthfully – we needed any credibility that would bring.  

It did that and much, much more. CivTech proved successful, gained momentum, and grew.

The Studio has reflected that. The early days, when we were definitely not sure as to whether what to many seemed a crazy idea would work [a public sector focused innovation accelerator – you have to be joking!] we kept things extremely mean and lean with an absolute minimum of outlay in case it didn’t work. We took any furniture and equipment we could beg or borrow [we definitely didn’t steal!] and the joke developed that CivTech was where ‘old Scottish Government furniture went to die’. A participant on the first Accelerator took pity on us, gave us two worn sofas he was throwing out, and they also became much loved and much used. But the approach had reason behind it: we were as much a start-up as the companies we were engaging with, and we would walk the same walk… 

Things changed. CivTech produced results ‘out of the box’. It gained credibility, grew. Over CivTech 1 – 5 we built a compelling case in terms of delivering innovation for the public sector and generating business growth, economic returns, real value to the Challenge Sponsors and benefits to Scotland as a whole – so much so we had to build an innovative ‘360 Bottom Line’ system to capture all the benefits. The CivTech Studio reflected our evolution: when one of our Challenge Managers described the Studio set-up as being like a ‘student flat after a bad night’ we knew things had to change. A new layout, new furniture, a paint job all reflected that we had moved on. But then so too had the Accelerator movement – gone were the basic set-ups of the early days. We were living in the world of WeWork [the interiors, not the insane company valuation], and we wanted to stay at the cutting edge. 

So, you may ask, why are we moving?

Because things have changed again. In May 2022 CivTech had confirmation of a £59.5 million allocation from the Scottish Government - £13.5 million to operate and £46 million to fund innovative companies responding to the Challenges we would develop during the lifetime of the current parliament. And just months earlier CivTech was featured in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation – the government’s ambitious plan to radically overhaul the economic delivery over the next ten years. We had gone from an early-stage start-up concept to something that is most definitely focused across the entire nation.

And we need to reflect that.  

I’m not sure that it’s even true to say that the majority of tech sector activity was focused in Edinburgh when we first opened our doors. I’m sure Glasgow and Aberdeen would take issue with that - and rightly so. But while Codebase was back-in-the-day undoubtedly the fastest growing tech hub in Europe, and it made sense to locate there, the tech sector is undoubtedly expanding and spreading to all parts of Scotland. 

And again, we need to reflect that. 

And there’s something else: the pandemic encouraged CivTech to move from a fundamentally ‘in the room’ initiative to one that was firmly rooted online – or perhaps more accurately, a hybrid approach where we augment the online delivery with specific and focused events. This frees us up to take CivTech to wherever in Scotland it makes sense. So just like the Accelerator itself we’ll be going hybrid and we’ll be operating from wherever can make the most impact. So we’re planning to widen our presence across Scotland, both online and ‘in the room’, wherever and whenever there’s a need. And in this we’re in lockstep with Codebase itself as it spreads its presence across the nation through the Techscaler project – another major government investment in the tech sector – and I’m sure we’ll be a regular presence wherever it lands. From coffee shops for catch-ups to the grandest environments if there’s a need – be it Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Dumfries, the Borders, the Highlands and Islands, and everywhere else if we can.

Time to grow. Time to expand. Time to move on. 

So we’ve left the Studio with many great memories and a sense of real achievement. Together with all the people who’ve engaged with us –  colleagues across the public sector, Challenge Sponsors, the CivTech Alumni companies, and everyone who has engaged with CivTech including all the entrepreneurs, innovators, teams, pre-starts, start-ups, consultants who engaged with us whether or not they made it to the Accelerators, and to Codebase itself, we say thank you – you helped make the journey so very worthwhile. 

And for me, having been there on the first day, I’ll always carry the memory of what the Studio has meant for CivTech. And with it, a smile on my face. So while it's ‘game over’ at the Studio it’s most definitely… 

Time for the Next Level