A “massive but exciting journey” for award-winning organisation

The annual celebration of knowledge exchange between business and academia returned to an in-person event on 23 March this year for the first time since 2020 – and if the buzz of the room at the Dundee venue was anything to go by, people were delighted to be celebrating face-to-face once again.

The Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards, hosted by Interface, acknowledges and showcases the impacts achieved through these novel collaborations that are leading the way towards economic growth, societal improvements and environmental advances.

The majority of the shortlisted nominations each year have benefited from the support of an extensive ecosystem including organisations, academics, funders, and individuals.

Scotland is recognised for its well-connected ecosystem for business support. Beyond making connections to world class universities, Interface will refer companies to the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) to support specific biotech challenges. For example, the Biotech Innovators Accelerator Programme has been hugely beneficial to some of our earlier stage biotech companies such as EVA Biosystems Ltd and Prozymic Biolabs.

This year’s Innovation of the Year winner, Sustainable Thinking Scotland (STS CIC), is a Community Interest Company in Bo’Ness which grows fresh fruit and vegetables for a local foodbank. The organisation has been supported by both Interface and IBioIC as it developed functional biochar, produced from recycled wood waste, capturing the carbon before it is released. The product assists with tackling nutrient pollution and preventing toxic algal blooms, whilst improving water quality, filtering algae, and reducing contamination, the process results in purified water and a nutrient rich carbon biochar that can be re-used on land as a slow-release fertiliser.

The company was referred to Shelley Breckenridge from Interface through their engagement in Firstport’s LaunchMe programme, which is aimed at supporting Scotland’s highest potential social enterprises.  After Interface put out a call to the relevant universities in Scotland, STS CIC decided to collaborate with both the University of the Highlands & Islands and the University of Strathclyde to test biochar production from wood waste and investigate its potential use in nutrient removal. 

The result has been the development of a functional biochar and their first soil amendment product, with recyclable packaging designed by University of Glasgow MBA students, a further collaboration brokered by Interface, now on sale to gardeners and growers through their website and local retail outlets.

A studentship through IBioIC has enabled STS to work with a PhD student from the Chemical and Process Engineering Department at Strathclyde University to investigate each step of biochar production to make it more efficient for larger scale use.

Continuing to work with all three universities, the organisation has its sights set on scaling up manufacture of biochar for use in water remediation and soil recovery for environmental organisations such as SEPA.

All this is a far cry from the run-down walled garden they took over a few years ago, which has become home to their multi-purpose community enterprise. In the words of co-founder, Sean Kerr, it’s been a “massive but exciting journey. In the past two years we’ve seen acceleration and growth we couldn’t have even fathomed.”