OPINION | Next step is to secure scale-up funding

The refreshed Scottish Life Sciences Strategy is an ideal opportunity to tie together the wider innovation strategy with concrete proposals on attracting more scale-up investment, writes Deborah O’Neil

IT’S not often that I come away from an event with such a spring in my step. As an entrepreneur and immunologist, I’ve been to more conferences and gatherings than I can count, but The Times & Sunday Times Scottish Life Sciences Summit reminded me why Aberdeen and the wider North-East have such a strong life sciences sector.

The sense of purpose and support, of us all pulling in the same direction, was evident as we welcomed visitors from across Scotland and throughout the UK. The summit has grown in stature over the past six years, mirroring the development of our distinctive and dynamic life sciences cluster in the North-East.

At the first summit in 2020 – just days before the first coronavirus lockdown – we discussed plans for the Opportunity North East (ONE) BioHub, our £40 million life sciences innovation hub on the Foresterhill campus in Aberdeen. At the 2022 event, we shared details of the ongoing construction work. And, at this year’s summit, we revealed that more than 2,000 people have already visited the ONE BioHub since it opened last summer, with the centre now poised to welcome its first tenants.

So – what’s next? One of the topics that came up again and again at the summit, both from the panellists on the stage and from the conversations among delegates, was the need for greater access to scale-up funding in Scotland.

While the North-East and wider Scottish ecosystem provide support and seed funding for entrepreneurs, it’s that next step that often prevents companies from staying and growing in Scotland. Call it the “venture capital gap”, call it the “valley of death”, the amount of money businesses need to go from their start-up or spin-out stage into a major growth phase has been a topic that’s vexed innovators and their allies for decades.

Wind the clock back to 2017 and the Scottish Life Sciences Strategy outlined a vision for the sector to be turning over £8 billion a year by 2025. Figures released earlier this month [March] revealed that our sector smashed that target, posting £10 billion of revenues in 2021.

The next Scottish Life Sciences Strategy represents a crucial opportunity to address the issue of scale-up funding. By building on the life sciences sector’s place within the Scottish Government’s wider national innovation strategy, there’s a chance here for entrepreneurs, investors, academics, policymakers, and other important players in our ecosystem to work together to solve the scale-up conundrum.

The North-East and the wider Scottish ecosystem are underpinned by centres of research excellence in our universities. There’s no lack of scientific talent and our ambition is growing. The pressing challenge is to ensure that more of that innovation translates into commercial success with solutions reaching the market.

As Epidarex Capital’s Sinclair Dunlop reminded us from the stage, there’s no reason why the North-East can’t replicate its success as the energy capital of Europe when it comes to life sciences. But as we were also reminded by Poonam Malik – co-chair of the First Minister’s New Deal for Business Group – Scotland needs to win more of the scale-up funding available from agencies such as Innovate UK.

Most life sciences entrepreneurs are driven by a desire to cure illness and improve lives. Yet life sciences is also an economic driver, generating high-growth, high-value businesses that provide the skilled and sustainable jobs that our economy needs.

If our ecosystem can match the political will demonstrated by Westminster to put life sciences at the heart of economic growth then there’s a great opportunity here to improve both Scotland’s health and wealth. Refreshing our national life sciences strategy to focus on scale-up funding and putting in place the action and investment to drive change will be a major step in that direction.