The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) has been named the official partner of Climate-KIC in Scotland.
The centre, based at the University of Edinburgh, will focus on developing low-carbon ideas in the practice of data collection focusing on the themes of rural areas and water innovation.
Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership concentrating on climate change.
The European Union-supported initiative seeks to work towards tackling climate change through partnerships between the public, private and academic sectors.
Climate-KIC currently have three centres in the UK and Ireland, specifically in London, Birmingham, and Dublin. The ECCI will be the first centre of its kind in Scotland.
Following the announcement, the ECCI is offering entrepreneurs in Scotland the chance to bid for up to ten thousand euros to aid business development.
Parts of the initiative will include support from business experts in the forming of new companies with a focus on climate change prevention.
The ECCI promises to deliver three programmes through Climate-KIC by 2019.
The Accelerator programme will give new low carbon start-ups the funding and support necessary to make their businesses investment ready.
The ClimateLaunchpad will be the world’s largest clean-tech business idea competition, with cash prizes to be awarded.
The greenhouse programme will offer tailored support to individuals with innovative ideas on climate change without the investment or support to develop them further.
The intent is that the partnership will constitute a further boost for Scotland’s low-carbon sector, following the Scottish Government’s draft energy strategy discussed earlier this year.
The Scottish Government also recently announced plans to bring forward a new Climate Change Bill that will see an ambitious new 2020 target of reducing actual Scottish emissions by more than 50 per cent.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon opened a new ECCI centre in Hong Kong in 2015 to help Scottish organisations with low-carbon aims.
The ECCI seeks to develop collaboration between experts from different areas of business, research and government to help inform government policymaking decisions. It also supports a range of low-carbon enterprises.
Speaking about the organisation, ECCI Director Dr Andy Kerr said: “ECCI brings people together to turn good low carbon ideas into reality – so it’s hugely exciting for us to bring Europe’s leading climate innovation programme to Scotland.
“Scotland has a world-leading approach to tackling climate change, and we’re looking forward to being able to offer our home-grown climate innovators the money and expertise to take on growing global markets.”
Kerr continued: “The Climate-KIC Accelerator programme is open for applications now – so if you have a low carbon business idea and the ambition to make it happen, we’d love to hear from you.”
The director of Climate-KIC UK and Ireland, Tom Mitchell, said: “Getting ECCI on board as a Climate-KIC Partner is a huge boost for our work with city-regions in the UK & Ireland, which focuses on putting climate innovation at the heart of jobs and skills strategies.
“From Edinburgh there is real potential to build jobs and climate-positive technologies with global relevance around Scotland’s climate change ambitions and its existing strengths in the new climate economy.”
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