The University of Edinburgh Business School runs a postgraduate programme in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

As part of the course the students work as a team of consultants to tackle the real-world challenges faced by organisations to consider approaches to managing innovation. The host organisation can be any size, private/public or third sector.

The students are tasked with identifying opportunities for innovation, selecting those that can be pursued, implementing these ideas into new products, services, processes and activities, technologies or business models, and designing a way to generate and capture value.

The projects are supervised by our academic colleagues. Past company hosts often find it a novel way to have some free consultancy done, looking at challenges from a slightly different perspective.

If this is something your organisation could be interested in, please contact Aidan Hetherington, Corporate Engagement Manager, on Aidan.Hetherington@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 9841 for an initial chat.

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce welcomes the thrust of the Scottish Government’s 2017-18 Programme for Government, and applauds its ambition “to be the inventor and the producer, not just a consumer, of the innovations that will shape the lives of our children and grandchildren.”

With the Scottish economy still fragile, the Chambers wholeheartedly concur with the First Minister’s statement to the Scottish Parliament on the need for bold measures to help our industries adapt to the future and to adopt emerging data and digital technology to make our economy more competitive, productive, innovative, fair and profitable.

We look forward to seeing the detail to support these announcements, particularly those with no timescales attached, and further clarity on key announcements including the Scottish National Investment Bank and how it will operate in reality.

Nevertheless, the Scottish Government can rely on the support of the Scottish Chambers Network in its plans to increase government investment in business R&D by 70% to generating an estimated £300M of additional R&D spending over the next three years.

Likewise, we support the investment of £9m in a new lightweight manufacturing centre in Renfrewshire to help companies develop global competitive advantage in the manufacturing of lightweight, environmentally friendly materials.

The Scottish Government has wisely recognised that scaling-up businesses requires support as well as starting them, and we look forward to working with them on the new “Unlocking Ambition” challenge, to provide intensive support for up to 40 of the most talented entrepreneurs.

On the enterprise and skills agenda, we welcome the new Strategic Board, led by Nora Senior, past-President of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, and look forward to working with the Board to improve the strategic alignment of the public and private sectors.

On business rates, Scottish Chambers of Commerce has already made clear that the requirement to deliver “revenue neutrality” has limited the benefits of the Barclay Review’s reforms, and we note the critical role the Scottish Government has in matching the business momentum for change.

Finally on the circular economy, we would like to see more consultation with business on the proposals to design and introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks containers, to ensure that the scheme can be effective in achieving its aims without imposing extra costs on businesses and consumers. We would hope that no scheme will be implemented without the full buy-in of retailers.

Esh Border Construction welcomed a group of school-children to Edinburgh’s Calton Hill development after the youngsters created a series of unique artworks for the historic City Observatory site.

Pupils from Abbeyhill and Leith Walk Primary School worked with artist Tessa Lynch to produce the panorama charcoal drawings which will be displayed on hoardings around the project.

They were delivered to Esh Border Construction Contract Manger Steven Kelly earlier this week.

Steven said: “We are very proud to be involved with the re-birth of the historic City Observatory site at Calton Hill and were delighted to welcome the Abbeyhill and Leith Walk school-children to the site.

“Their drawings are fantastic and are indicative of the type of creative work which will be born out of this fantastic project.”

The drawings were inspired by artist Robert Barker’s iconic Panorama of Edinburgh from Calton Hill, 1792. Before completing them primary four to seven pupils visited Calton Hill and made observational drawings from the Hill, then worked together in a follow-up workshop in classroom to produce the panoramas.

Livingston-based Esh Border Construction is working with Edinburgh City Council and Collective, a non-profit visual art organisation which will manage the site when it opens in 2018, on the £3 million project’
As well as taking delivery of the drawings Steven also handed over a cheque to Collective from Esh Border Construction’s bursary scheme – Esh Communities.

Kate Gray, Director of Collective said: “We’ve been working with the schools in our local area, Abbeyhill and Leith Walk primary, since 2015. We are developing long term relationships with the schools in our neighbourhood, with an aim that over time the pupils feel like Collective is very much a place for them, and our new home on Calton Hill is a place where they can keep returning to learn in ways which are both informative and fun.

“We’re also delighted to receive this support from Esh Border Construction for our schools learning programme.”

The site – which is credited as being the 19th century ‘birthplace of astronomy and timekeeping in Edinburgh’ – will be opened-up for public use, with a new restaurant and gallery space.