Frequently Asked Questions

Below are the questions most frequently asked by people about CivTech. We’ve divided them into those for public sector organisations and for businesses and entrepreneurs, but we’d encourage you to read both. If you have a question which isn’t covered here, please contact us — we’ll be happy to help.

For public sector organisations

What’s a Challenge?

Simple—it’s a problem a public sector organisation would like solved, developed so that it can go out to the market in an Open Challenge format.

What do you need to be a Challenge Sponsor?

We’ve developed a pretty clear understanding of what works for a truly great Challenge Sponsor. So how does it go? First, you need a problem you’d like solved! We can help you turn this into a great brief — one that’s crystal clear, invites innovation, and succinctly maps out the public and technical landscapes the solution needs to work in. Then there’s money. Challenge Sponsors fund teams on the Exploration and Accelerator Stages, and at the end of the Accelerator, with a product that works, they move forward with a contract extension. The total outlay for the Exploration and Accelerator Stages [assuming three teams on the Exploration stage, and one on the Accelerator] is £50,000 (+ VAT if applicable). All CivTech Challenges are part of a research and development procurement process with a set maximum contract value, usually between £350k and £1.3m depending on the scope of the Challenge and likelihood of there being multiple, complimentary solutions. The post Accelerator stage is negotiable between the company, CivTech and the sponsor team, with the total value being dependent on the scope of development work required within the procurement limits. Knowledge, experience and data are vital. You’ll need to give the team the data they need. And all your public sector knowledge, experience and insight, because real and meaningful co-production, and the sharing of ideas is the only way truly great solutions emerge. Finally, commitment. Everything depends on it. There is a considerable time commitment required. We tend to say you’ll need to allocate half a day a week during the Accelerator stage to work with your team—though we’ve found that many Challenge Sponsors decide to spend more time when they see the results that truly meaningful engagement produces. And all along the line you’ll have the CivTech team helping, with all the hard-won experience we’ve got from many years in tech, creativity and business, and the expertise we’ve gained from running the CivTech Innovation Flow.

How do we create a great Challenge brief?

These are the things we ask prospective Challenge Sponsors to develop so we can shape a great brief together: What’s the narrative? What the problem is, its background and context, why it’s important, the benefits of solving it, and who would benefit. Why you’re focused on this Challenge, any attempts you’ve made to find a solution, and why they're not fit for purpose. Who are the end users? Are there user groups related to them? What you’d like to see from the solution, and what would success look like? What is the one metric that matters? In other words, what specific thing can be measured that would indicate that the right product's being built? Systems including software, APIs and databases the solution will need to work with and/or integrate with. What's in it for the successful solution provider? What’s the commercial opportunity, from direct, initial contracts to national and international market potential? What resources are you providing? Of course, there’s money, data, knowledge and commitment. But what about other things such as interns, citizen groups, sales opportunities, additional domain expertise, field trips? Not to mention coffee, cakes and encouragement!

What do I, as a Challenge Sponsor, get out of the Innovation Flow?

We use a standard contract to engage teams on the Accelerator. In return for your investment and time, you get a license to use the MVP (minimum viable product), royalty free and in perpetuity, for the business purposes that are defined at the Post-Accelerator Stage. [They’re defined at this stage because it’s very hard to define the precise business purposes at the start of the Accelerator]

What’s the CivTech position on IP and equity?

The IP created by the team remains with them. We want them to be able to exploit it in every way they can [subject to the provisions of the contract they have with us]. And we’ve already got a great track record in terms of businesses growing fast, winning both investment and contracts outwith the initial CivTech Challenge area, based on the products they’ve developed, the contacts they’ve made, and the reputation they’ve built through CivTech.

What are the risks to me as a Challenge Sponsor?

This is a two-part answer. First, the risk is that the proposed solution might not eventually pan out. In which case you’ve risked your outlay. But given that the CivTech programme is designed to give proposed solutions every chance of reaching fruition, [so far] the overwhelming majority of the proposed solutions have developed into MVPs. So we’d say that this is a fairly low risk — and because the actual cash outlay is small and the payments tranched, compared with alternative procurement methodologies we’d argue the risk is mitigated even further. The second part is this: given the modest outlay needed to explore solutions in the CivTech programme, and the speed with which they develop and the learnings you’ll get from the process, the risk could be regarded as betting the house on a conventional procurement, and not getting involved with CivTech at all.

What’s an Accelerator?

A tech accelerator is a widespread way for tech start-ups to develop their product as fast and effectively as possible.

Digital has revolutionised how businesses, products and services are developed. The tech sector came to understand that the traditional way of developing these things through an incubation stage that can last up to two or three years does not fit a world in which technology develops so fast that most code is redundant in less than that time [making your product out-dated before it’s realised].

Instead, a new, fast, intensive start-up system was developed: ten to twelve promising early-stage products and services were pulled together to be developed in the same space, with inputs from business, tech expertise, and funders.

Starting in 2005 with the first ever accelerator—Y Combinator in Silicon Valley—this ‘accelerator’ model meant tech products and services could be developed as fast and successfully as possible, and proved extremely successful. Spreading to Boulder, Colorado [where another famous accelerator TechStars started], and then to Europe and the rest of the world, the accelerator movement has gone from less than half a dozen schemes in 2009 to quite literally hundreds across the world today. Companies as well-known Dropbox, Airbnb and Pebble can trace their start to accelerators, together with a host of very successful but less well-known enterprises.

The public sector has been slow to acquaint itself with the accelerator movement. And while this is changing with the appearance of a number of accelerators offering a public sector profile, they themselves have presented some problems for the public sector. They’re often run by large scale corporations with a focus on shareholder value and profit, and the public sector organisations who engage do so on a basis of little or no expertise in how to get the best out of the accelerator system. And they also suffer from a fundamental flaw in most accelerator designs: teams come up with a ‘new’ idea [increasingly difficult in the worldwide accelerator ‘bubble’], spend three months of intensive, 24/7 activity developing it—and then find that there’s actually no market for the end result.

CivTech has been designed to solve these problems—to develop better public sector services and products for which there is a proven market, to develop them as fast and effectively as possible, and to do it in a way that delivers maximum benefit to both the public sector and the businesses involved. And to do this in a time-efficient and cost-efficient way, and so deliver public services with maximum effectiveness.

And it’s been designed by people behind with long track records in this area, including central involvement in the very first intensive tech accelerator in Europe [The Difference Engine, north east England, 2009], and the first accelerator in Scotland [The UP Accelerator, Edinburgh, 2014].

How does the CivTech Accelerator differ from the standard, private sector model?

There are a number of big differences between the CivTech Accelerator and the standard private sector model.

First, every team on the CivTech Accelerator is working on a product that — if developed successfully — will have a buyer. Because with the problem solved, why wouldn’t the Challenge Sponsor want to continue the relationship?

Second, the CivTech Accelerator does not take an equity stake in the teams. Generally this can be as much as 10–15% in the standard private sector model.

Third, all teams on the CivTech Accelerator receive a government contract. That’s a significant blue-chip endorsement for companies that might be only one day old when they join the Accelerator.

Fourth, with an MVP developed, there’s every chance of a significant contract extension via a pre-commercial agreement — again a huge plus for a business that might be quite young.

Fifth, we’ve built a great Business Workshop System, which is both highly effective and state-of-the-art. It’s based on a decade and a half of research and delivery, and we’re fairly sure there’s not one like it elsewhere.

Finally, our success rate is much higher. In standard accelerators, only 20% or so of MVPs go on to further development. So far, across 9 CivTech cohorts, 90 companies have taken part in the Accelerator, with nearly 80% of products still in use. As at March 2024, investment into companies stood in excess of £110 million, excluding CivTech and Challenge Sponsor investments in Challenges, making CivTech well-placed in worldwide accelerator league tables.

I’ve heard about ‘fast fail’ - can you tell me what this is?

Fast fail is a concept used in tech accelerators. The idea is that it’s better to try an idea out and quickly establish whether it has ‘legs’, rather than spending years to find this out in traditional incubation processes. This process applies to everything including the product or service in question, the business model surrounding it, and the team involved. The advantages are that valuable resources — and not just money — can be protected by limiting risks, and closing down non-viable projects quickly. For the entrepreneur, it’s also a good thing because it avoids the trap of spending years trying to make something work, only to experience it die slowly with all the financial and emotional strain this creates. So, while it’s called a fast fail, in many ways it’s actually a win all round. It’s one of the things that the tech sector is pretty good at, and something we think the public sector could learn about to its benefit.

Why is there a Business Workshop System?

We want the teams developing our solutions to be both tech savvy and business smart. After all, as a Challenge Sponsor you probably want to be working with a company that’s as well run as possible, growing, making profits and creating jobs. So the Business Workshop System is designed to give teams — whatever their stage of business development, and whatever their past experience — the knowledge and expertise they need to do just that. This not only de-risks the Challenge, it also creates lifetime learning: the skills, knowledge and networks developed during the Accelerator will be really useful over the long term, and form a solid basis for further development. This is a ‘hidden’ outcome of the CivTech approach, and feeds into the Government’s desire to develop an innovative and entrepreneurial nation.

What’s an MVP?

An MVP is a Minimum Viable Product. Again, it’s an insight from the tech industry, which recognises that in order to be useful, a product doesn’t need every function and feature it’s possible to dream up — just the ones that will make it operationally useful.

Think of it this way: Microsoft launched as Multi-Tool Word for Xenix in 1983. Soon renamed Microsoft Word, it was extremely limited in what it could do compared to today’s version. But it was useful, people could use it, and wanted it. It was in modern vernacular, an MVP.

Depending on the Challenge, and depending on the potential solution to go through to the CivTech Accelerator, and MVP might take different forms. Indeed, the full nature of the solution—and so the MVP—might not be apparent until some way into the Accelerator.

But that’s the beauty of it, because everyone involved—Challenge Sponsor, the team developing the solution, the CivTech team, and citizens—can feed into the process to help create the best solution possible.

What’s the spend limit for Challenge Sponsors?

The maximum contract value is the upper limit of the amount (not including VAT, if applicable) that can be spent on developing a solution to the Challenge through CivTech, over the whole life of the project. This amount includes the value of contracts awarded to participants through the Exploration Stage (£5,000 + VAT per team) and Accelerator (up to £35,000 + VAT per team).

If the Challenge Sponsor wishes to continue development of the solution beyond the CivTech Accelerator, they may negotiate one or more Pre-commercial Agreements (PCA) with the successful team or teams. The cumulative value of those PCAs cannot exceed the maximum contract value, minus any amounts already spent during Exploration and the Accelerator.

What’s an Open Challenge?

An open challenge system is simply a process by which you set out a challenge [or problem] you have, without prescribing a solution. Then it’s up to anyone who thinks they have a solution to propose it to you. This way, you get to tap into the entire sum of innovation, creativity and ingenuity that’s out there, waiting to be harnessed.

What is a Pre-Commercial Agreement (PCA)?

A Pre-Commercial Agreement (PCA) is a contractual agreement that enables further pre-commercial development work on the solution to your Challenges, to take the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) developed in the Accelerator through to a Commercially Viable product that fully solves your Challenge. PCAs aren’t a guaranteed stage of the CivTech process and there is no obligation to enter into one. The decision to proceed with a PCA is typically based on the success of the MVP and the company’s proposed project plans for a pre-commercial stage. The PCA itself is negotiated between the company, CivTech and the Challenge Sponsor.

What is CivTech Digital Innovators Challenge Workshop programme?

CivTech Digital Innovators is a bespoke training programme, exclusively for CivTech’s Challenge Sponsors. CivTech Digital Innovators works in tandem with the work and learning that you will undertake as a CivTech Challenge Sponsor. The programme aims to develop confident, capable, and innovative thinkers across the Public Sector and Third Sector, and provide you with the knowledge and skills to recognise the potential for innovation, digital and tech in your own organisations and policy areas. Being a CivTech Challenge Sponsor will provide you with invaluable hands-on experience of working on a fast-paced, agile environment as you select and then collaborate with your participant companies as they develop a product that meets the needs of your Challenge. The workshop programme complements and enhances the hands-on Challenge Sponsor experience with formal training from both CivTech and External Providers, covering a broad range of topics including introductions to the terminology and approaches of digital and tech companies; an introduction to Agile Project Management (the most popular Project Management approach in digital and tech) and related tools; presentation communications skills; preparing for operating a live digital service, and much more.

As an added benefit, some of these workshops will be delivered alongside the CivTech participant companies, representing an exciting opportunity to engage with a broader range of perspectives in the workshops, and to see how private sector companies approach the same material.

If you’re a public sector organisation and would like to explore how this kind of initiative might benefit your people, please contact us —we’d love to discuss possibilities.

For businesses & entrepreneurs

What’s an Open Challenge?

An open challenge system is simply a process by which an organisation sets out a challenge [or problem] without prescribing a solution, and asks the greater eco-system to offer solutions. It’s up to anyone who thinks they have a solution to come forward and propose it. This way, any individual, team or business can pitch their idea into an open and fair competition. It’s a great way to tap into the entire sum of innovation, creativity and ingenuity that’s out there, waiting to be harnessed. And for you, it’s simply a great opportunity to solve a problem, and win business.

Who can apply?

Anyone. Individuals, formal and informal teams, academic teams, pre-start businesses, start-ups, established businesses of all sizes, charities, and community groups are all welcome to apply.

Do I need to be a company or an existing business to apply?

You do not need to be a business to apply. In fact, you can take part right up to the end of the Exploration Stage without forming one. You will need to form a company in order to take part in the Accelerator—and a significant percentage of participants on the Accelerators have been brand new companies.

Of these new companies, about half were created by ‘sole traders’—though we stress to be successful as quickly and efficiently as possible, it’s really important for these single person companies to build teams as fast as possible.

How can I get more information about the Challenges that interest me?

Once the Challenge Stage of the CivTech Innovation Flow opens, the Challenges will be found both on this website, and on PCS Scotland. You should also follow CivTech on X and Linkedin, and join our mailing list where we announce new Challenges as soon as they’re published.

What is PCS?

The Scottish Government’s Public Contracts Scotland website (PCS), is the single point of entry for Scottish public sector contracts. Within its framework we’ve worked hard to make the application process as simple and straightforward as possible.

Once on PCS, you will see a link to register at the top of the page, you will want to register as a supplier. This involves entering some basic information about you and your business—address, phone, email etc.

Can I register on Public Contracts Scotland even if I'm not an incorporated business?

The answer is yes you can! In fact anyone can — even if you're ‘just’ an individual, freelancer or informal team. Here’s how:

Go to
http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/
Select free registration — press the register button in the top right hand side of the web page.

What’s the CivTech position on IP and equity?

Neither CivTech nor the Challenge Sponsor take any ownership of your IP or equity. However, by joining the Accelerator you will grant the Challenge Sponsor a royalty free license to use the product you create in perpetuity, for the business purposes that are defined at the Post-Accelerator Stage. [They’re defined at this stage because it’s very hard to define the precise business purposes at the start of the Accelerator]

I’m not sure I can come up with a solution, but I’ve got skills that I think would benefit a team. How can I get involved in innovation?

Depending on the skills, knowledge and experience you have, there may be opportunities for you to join a team — especially the newer, small ones. Please contact us for more information.

I have a product—can you put a Challenge out about it?

The CivTech Programme takes an open challenge approach so no, we couldn’t do this. If you have an existing product or service that you think could benefit public sector organisations please submit proposals to Scotland Innovates.

I have identified a problem with a public sector organisation. Can you make them take it forward as a Challenge?

No, we don’t do this because it’s up to public sector organisations to identify their problems. But if you think that there’s real benefit to be gained from solving the problem you’ve identified, reach out to the organisation and talk with them.

Do you have to be in Edinburgh to apply for a CivTech Challenge?

Not at all. This is open to everyone. The majority of the Accelerator will be delivered and managed remotely, though you will be expected to be in Edinburgh for any in-person meeting. In the Exploration and Accelerator Stages we hold a number of in-person networking events (roughly every month) where Challenge Sponsors and participants can get together. These events aren’t mandatory however we would encourage companies taking part to take advantage of them.

What are the opportunities for SMEs and start-ups?

As an SME, start up, pre start up or entrepreneur, the CivTech programme offers an unprecedented opportunity to engage with the public sector in a meaningful, effective and productive way by solving a Challenge, building a product, and developing a relationship with a major public sector organisation. It’s a chance to build a business, and do some good along the way.

Can I make multiple submissions?

Yes. We encourage as many applications from companies as they wish to put in. We will of course assess the capacity of the team in question to deliver on them.

Can I make the same/similar submission for more than one challenge?

If you think your solution/idea can cover off more than one Challenges then that’s great. However, the application should be tailored for each challenge rather than a blanket ‘copy and paste’. Bear in mind they may not be selected for further consideration for both Challenges.

If I have multiple distinct solutions to a particular Challenge, can I make multiple applications?

Yes.

How is the money given out on the Accelerator?

It’s paid in stages throughout the Accelerator. Checkgate sessions are held every few weeks at which Challenge Sponsors, the CivTech team and the developer team get together to review progress — and getting through this successfully triggers payments. Engagement with the Workshop System, being a mandatory part of the Accelerator, is also taken into account.

Is there an ideal team make-up?

It’s almost a given that any successful business needs a range of skills. In terms of tech this can be summarised as coding, design, and commercial skills. There may well be specific tech knowhow you’ll need [such as IoT, 3D printing or AI, depending on the nature of your solution.

That doesn’t mean to say that you need all things in place when you apply — or even on the first day of the Accelerator. But you must definitely have the skills required to get going — that usually means ones in the coding, and design areas — and be looking to add the other ones as fast as possible.

If we think that you’re missing vital skills during the application stage, we’ll talk with you about how you can address the issue — and we’re always developing ways to facilitate this.

What’s an Accelerator?

A tech accelerator is a widespread way for tech start-ups to develop their product as fast and effectively as possible.

Starting in 2005 with the first ever accelerator — Y Combinator in Silicon Valley — this ‘accelerator’ model meant tech products and services could be developed as fast and successfully as possible, and proved extremely successful. Spreading to Boulder, Colorado [where another famous accelerator TechStars started], and then to Europe and the rest of the world, the accelerator movement has gone from less than half a dozen schemes in 2009 to quite literally hundreds across the world today. Companies as well-known Dropbox, Airbnb and Pebble can trace their start to accelerators, together with a host of very successful but less well-known enterprises.

What’s an MVP?

Think of it this way: Microsoft launched as Multi-Tool Word for Xenix in 1983. Soon renamed Microsoft Word, it was extremely limited in what it could do compared to today’s version. But it was useful, people could use it, and wanted it. It was in modern vernacular, an MVP.

Depending on the Challenge, and depending on the potential solution to go through to the CivTech Accelerator, and MVP might take different forms. Indeed, the full nature of the solution — and so the MVP — might not be apparent until some way into the Accelerator.

How does the CivTech Accelerator differ from the standard, private sector model?

There are a number of big differences between the CivTech Accelerator and the standard private sector model.

First, every team on the CivTech Accelerator is working on a product that — if developed successfully — should have a buyer. Because with the problem solved, why wouldn’t the Challenge Sponsor want to continue the relationship?

Second, the CivTech Accelerator does not take an equity stake in the teams. Generally this can be as much as 10–15% in the standard private sector model.

Third, all teams on the CivTech Accelerator receive a government contract. That’s a significant blue-chip endorsement for companies that might be only one day old when they join the Accelerator.

Fourth, with an MVP developed, there’s every chance of a significant contract extension — again a huge plus for a business that might be quite young.

Finally, our success rate is much higher. In standard accelerators, only 20% or so of MVPs go on to further development. . So far, across 8 CivTech cohorts, we have had 76 teams have taken part in the accelerator, with nearly 80% of products still in use. As at March 2023, investment into companies stood at £76 million, excluding CivTech and Challenge Sponsor investments in challenges, making CivTech well-places in worldwide accelerator league tables.

I’ve heard about ‘fast fail’ - can you tell me what this is?

The advantages are that valuable resources—and not just money — can be protected by limiting risks, and closing down non-viable projects quickly. For the entrepreneur, it’s also a good thing because it avoids the trap of spending years trying to make something work, only to experience it die slowly with all the financial and emotional strain this creates.

So, while it’s called a fast fail, in many ways it’s actually a win all round. It’s one of the things that the tech sector is pretty good at, and something we think the public sector could learn about to its benefit.

Can you tell me more about the Business Workshop System?

CivTech’s Business Workshop System is designed to drive everyone’s understanding of what it takes to run a truly great business. It covers both tech and business development areas. If you imagine a ‘Business 360’ delivered by highly successful people who are expert in their areas and really have been there, done it, and continue to do so, you won’t go far wrong. In fact, one recent participant called it a mini MBA…

The workshops are scheduled in such a way that they create a coherent and understandable narrative. Mentoring and coaching run alongside workshops. A range of people will be coming in to share their knowledge and experience: the CivTech Team will be around continually, and every week there’ll be business and tech people alongside professional advisors. Again, the huge emphasis will be on people who have been there, done it, and continue to do so

There’s a difference between giving people everything they need to know in short, sharp focused sessions, and creating a bloated programme that insists on whole day sessions because that’s what some trainers insist on [usually because they want to justify the fee].

CivTech’s approach is to say to its workshop leaders the sessions should cover everything that’s important in the most effective, punchy, interesting and time-efficient way possible. So if everything gets done in two hours, that’s fine. But if they need a day, that’s fine too.

What the sessions aren’t designed to do—can’t do—is instantly turn someone from a novice into an expert. But what they can do is create enough base knowledge and understanding so that the participant can move forward, and develop their own path to the level of expertise they need. They’ll know the right questions to ask — and whom to ask.

Is the Business Workshop System mandatory?

Apart from a very few ‘101s’ which more experienced teams can arrange to miss, attendance at and engagement in workshops is mandatory. Experience has taught us that even the most experienced business people will get a huge amount out of the workshops — and have a huge amount to contribute. Remember, the culture and ethos of the CivTech Innovation Flow is collaborative.

We do encourage maximum engagement from everyone, and with good reason. Even if someone’s role in the business isn’t fundamentally business [if, say, they’re on the tech side], and no matter how much they want to focus on just one activity, they’ll need to work across multiple areas at the start because few start-ups have the resources to bring everyone and everything in. And as a founder and shareholder they’ll need to contribute to some pretty far reaching decisions: but how are they going to make an informed call unless they understand business in the round?

And if someone is experienced, doing the workshops with their team will only strengthen a common understanding of how the business will grow. More than that: the knowledge they have and can share will add context and depth for their team and—because the CivTech ethos is one of collaboration and mutual help — every business in the room. And there’s always more to learn: the world is always moving on, new ideas emerge, and smart people never stop learning.

This doesn’t mean to say that every member of a team must attend every workshop. Nor does it mean that if there are unavoidable clashes in the diary, we can’t flex things. But given that we publish the workshop timetable well in advance of the Accelerator, there should be very few issues. If that’s not enough to persuade you that the workshops are worth it, take a look at the films in which past participants talk about it, and remember that attendance is linked to the staged payments through the Accelerator!

What is a Pre-Commercial Agreement (PCA)?