Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
Chair of the Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Ken Gowans said: “We have had a great response with our UKSPF supported Digital Grants programme so I’m delighted that we have reallocated some of the UKSPF grant to bolster our Business Growth grant programme and continue our Start-up grant scheme.”
In 2023 the Business Digital Grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund helped 160 local businesses with financial support totalling £570,000.
Cllr Gowans added: “This investment helped businesses with their digital transformation, allowing them to better adapt to the demands of a rapidly evolving digital landscape and enhancing their competitiveness, improve customer experience, and upskilling employees providing growth opportunities.”
One of the businesses to benefit was the Inverness Coffee Roasting Co. Manager Kevin Donnachie said: “We used the grant to invest in new hardware which will improve efficiency and accuracy in despatching coffee ordered from our new Shopify website. It also allows the progression and development of other areas of the business and has opened the space for a new job opportunity. The application process was simple, efficient and quick. It was also important to us that we purchased the hardware from a local supplier keeping the expenditure in the Highlands.”
This support to help with digital transformation will now be included within the Council’s successful Growth Business Grant. Growth grants are valuable to help businesses accelerate their growth plans, unlock new opportunities, achieve sustainable growth, drive innovation, and contribute to economic prosperity in the Highlands.
Over 250 businesses have accessed the start-up and growth grant funding totalling half a million pounds from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This financial boost has allowed them to innovate, increase productivity, create jobs, and stimulate economic growth in their communities.
Cllr Gowans is encouraging businesses not to miss out on this opportunity of support. He said: “We expect the demand for grant support to remain high, so I recommend businesses to contact our Business Gateway Highland team who provide specialist start-up and growth advisory support and full details on grant and loan support.
Find out if your business is eligible here
Trudy Morris, Chief Executive, Caithness Chamber of Commerce:
Earlier this month, over 160 people gathered to hear about the growing opportunities across the North Highland region. The room at the Focus North Conference was buzzing with energy, and it wasn’t just the vibrant orange backdrop pointing to a bright future for the region!
With a dynamic lineup of speakers, conversations spanned renewable energy, nuclear decommissioning, peatland restoration and space, but the message was clear – collaboration is the magic ingredient when it comes to securing a prosperous future for the North Highland Region and for our future generations.
Collaboration isn’t just a buzzword, businesses and communities thrive when individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and experience collaborate towards a common goal. A driving force behind the Focus North programme, collaborative partnership working has paved the way for initiatives which will prepare the region for the opportunities ahead. Such as the launch of the Caithness Business Fund’s Future Skills Initiative, which with initial funding of £100,000 via the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and NRS Dounreay, will support businesses to establish new apprenticeships, fostering locally grown talent and building resilience in our local economy.
Collaboration is often the by-product of successful networking and it’s not just about exchanging business cards. It’s about building meaningful relationships and fostering a community. Networking expands your business ecosystem, provides new opportunities, and opens doors to new possibilities and insights.
Of course, networking can be intimidating for even the most experienced business professionals. But nothing compares to being in the room when it comes to making genuine connections.
Our first networking event of the year held at the Royal Thurso Hotel was a resounding success. We were thrilled to see such a diverse range of local businesses in attendance. The North Highlands are a close-knit community, but it is essential to remember that you don’t always know everyone or everything that is happening locally. Speaking to members and local business owners opens our eyes to the breadth of their businesses and the wide array of their skills and services.
At the Caithness Chamber, we stand by our motto, “Stronger Together.” We believe that nurturing networking opportunities is one of the avenues for our members to build their businesses. Helping facilitate collaboration is just one of the ways we shine as a Chamber.
The Focus North Conference called for “collective local action” so let’s get out there and really communicate with each other. A perfect business collaboration might not result from each interaction, but we will certainly be more knowledgeable and more connected – who knows, you might even enjoy it!
View our full events programme on Eventbrite, to join us at our next Chamber Event register online or contact Fiona Levack Fiona@caithnesschamber.com
Sacha Woolham, Director, The Strategy Collective, ‘Building Connections, Networking, and Collaboration.’
I often say to people that in business it’s a case of ‘Collaborate or Die’, this feels quite emotive but throughout my corporate career as well as working with smaller businesses, the most innovative, profitable and happiest teams, follow this model. As the world shifts and changes, collaboration more than ever is central to a healthy business.
That means that the know-how on many elements of what we do sits outside our own business. Rather than just accepting this, collaboration with our suppliers or partners, the experts in these elements, can really help change our business.
A quick example. Many people ask me about why their marketing isn’t working. They hesitate as I don’t understand their business like they do – I can’t, and never will as I don’t sit with them day in and day out – and that’s not my job. My job is to understand their customers, talk to them, find out what they need and want and where the gaps are. Then we work to put a plan together, pulling a set of approaches that resonates and reaches their audiences. Two heads (often more) are better than one.
You see we are tapping into other people’s perspectives, their knowledge and expertise with a joint goal. But for this to work, you have to go with an open mind, a willingness to share and trust. Not only does it make you more productive, as you are suddenly gaining more from suppliers and partners, but it also tends to make people happier. Suddenly their engagement in your business is increased. Oh, and if your supplier suddenly hears of a new piece of work, then we can guess who they think of first.
This doesn’t happen overnight. We are learning from each other, collaborating, and finding the right words and places to jointly find their customers. This isn’t necessarily a quick process but it’s always fruitful. I always think of the African proverb – ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’
The other question I get a lot from businesses is how do I get more sales? Often my first port of call isn’t just about online options – so not just social media or websites but asking about face-to-face interactions. Why? People buy from people. I know that if I get potential leads to talk to my customers, particularly in business-to-business scenarios, they pretty much slam-dunk it and will make that sale. Their new customer can see the passion, the expertise and build trust first-hand. No website can convert a sale quite like a real human.
Building trust and relationships is really central to making a business profitable. People will spend more as well as keep coming back. Even in a digital age, nothing comes close to meeting our customers in person.
I was once told that ‘network’ was ‘net – wealth’. People who are closest to your business often will buy or recommend you. New customers can be closer than you think. And remember, all your employees have a network too, so your circle suddenly becomes much larger.
www.thestrategycollective.co.uk/
RES, the British renewable energy company behind the five-turbine Cairnmore Hill Wind Farm proposal, has submitted a new Biodiversity Enhancement Management Plan (BEMP) to accompany its planning application. The biodiversity enriching plan includes measures to enhance 56 hectares of wet heath habitat, plant 5.5 hectares of broadleaved woodland, create 4.5 hectares of species-rich scrub as well as the planting of over 2,300m of species-rich hedgerows.
The proposed wind farm is located in an area identified by The Highland Council as having ‘potential for wind farm development’ and is currently used for grazing sheep. The recent State of Nature Report suggests there has been a 15% decline in average species abundance in Scotland across closely monitored wildlife since 1994¹. RES has said the measures at Cairnmore Hill would improve local flora and fauna during the site’s operational life with the bespoke BEMP calculating a 16% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), as a direct result of the wind farm being built.
Euan Hogg, RES’ Development Project Manager, explained: “There’s currently a range of pressures being exerted on Scotland’s natural environment, including the direct impacts of human induced climate change, and it’s so important that we take measures to enhance our precious biodiversity, wherever we can. Cairnmore Hill offers a fantastic opportunity to do just that with a range of habitat improvements proposed to support a richer and more diverse mix of species on-site.
“The enhancement and restoration proposed could help improve the breeding, wintering and foraging habitats for a whole range of species, including waders and increase the floral species diversity. The turbines producing clean electricity on-site would also work hand in hand with the carbon-absorbing wet heath, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
A Biodiversity Management Group (BMG) would be established to oversee and monitor the implementation of the agreed BEMP and is likely to include representatives from The Highland Council and NatureScot.
If consented, the Cairnmore Hill Wind Farm proposal would help offset the equivalent of 23,736 tonnes of CO2 each year, pay back the construction carbon emissions in 1.5 years, and be capable of generating enough clean, low-cost electricity to meet the annual demand of around 28,000 homes.
In addition, it is predicted that the wind farm would deliver approximately £1.4 million of inward investment in the form of jobs, employment, and the use of local services during construction and the first year of operation – and around £8.75 million in business rates to The Highland Council over its operational lifetime.
RES also proposes to create additional benefit from the scheme by delivering a tailored community benefit package for the local area to help secure long-term economic, social and environmental benefits.
Furthermore, at a Highland-wide level, RES recently announced a new collaboration with UHI to support their Student Development Fund. The fund will empower a minimum of 60 students of UHI to further their personal development by providing financial support to overcome barriers to participate in learning opportunities and extra-curricular activities.
The Caithness Business Fund is celebrating a successful year with the announcement it has provided support for 10 apprenticeships in the Caithness and North Sutherland Region in 2023. This is a significant milestone for the Fund, which has now provided support for 20 local apprenticeships, with 50% of these awarded within the last 12 months.
Reflecting the diverse employment landscape of the region, the 2023 grant awards have included support for apprenticeship opportunities in electrical installation, business administration, professional cookery, hospitality supervision and leadership, welding and fabrication and scaffolding.
Eligible SMEs in Caithness and North Sutherland can access grants of up to £5,000 from the Fund to help with employment and associated training costs for accredited apprenticeship opportunities within their business.
On behalf of Caithness Scaffolding Contractors Ltd, Mike Muir commented “During the latter part of 2022, Caithness Scaffolding had an opportunity to promote some of our long serving employees into roles in our Management Team. The situation created the requirement for two new employees to be recruited to support our activities on the Dounreay Site, and it was decided these posts would be best filled by offering the candidates a Modern Apprenticeship.
Scaffolding Apprentices, Jack Steven and Liam Farquhar, Caithness Scaffolding.
“The decision to recruit two apprentices was made easier by the availability of funding through the Caithness Business Fund. The grants received from the Fund have been used to support both vocational and on the job training programmes for the apprentices.
Managing Director, Bert Macleod expressed his appreciation of the Caithness Business Fund for their support in processing our applications and ensuring that the funding was made available shortly after the recruitment.”
The funding support for apprenticeships has been made possible by a 25-year commitment by Baillie Wind Farm Ltd to contribute £25,000[1] per annum to the Fund along with additional annual social value contributions by Cavendish Nuclear.
Trudy Morris, CEO Caithness Chamber of Commerce said “I appreciate that for many small businesses employing an apprentice can seem quite a daunting investment, but the Caithness Business Fund is helping to “level up” access to apprenticeships, ensuring businesses and organisations of all sizes are equipped with skills needed both now and in the future.
“But supporting an apprenticeship isn’t just a good business decision, it represents a sustained investment in the future of the North Highlands, and we must work together to nurture our homegrown talent and provide attractive employment opportunities for our young workforce.
By enabling individuals to advance their employment, earning, and educational prospects locally, we can help to establish a more inclusive workforce and build resilience into our local economy and communities.”
The Caithness Business Fund is open for applications on a monthly basis and encourages enquiries from SMEs interested in apprenticeship opportunities to get in touch with the Fund administration team. The Fund’s mission is to promote the economic growth of Caithness and North Sutherland by supporting new and existing businesses and developing the skill base to meet new challenges. The Fund is available to both established businesses and start-ups, based in the Caithness and North Sutherland area.
Caithness Business Fund Enquiries: Tel: 01847 500104 Email: enquiries@caithnessbusinessfund. co.uk Website: caithnessbusinessfund.com
[1] Linked to the RPI
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is looking for organisations to come forward with innovations to enable the remote monitoring of its legacy nuclear sites.
- The Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites: Phase 2 competition is managed by DASA
- The NDA is making up to £1.5 million of funding available
- Submissions must be received by midday (GMT) on 5 March 2024.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has today launched Phase 2 of the Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites Competition, run on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
Following on from Phase 1, which oversaw £700k in funding allocated between 10 innovative organisations, this competition will see the NDA make up to £1.5 million of funding available, seeking proposals for a complete autonomous security alarm and interdiction network (ASAIN).
The ASAIN concept aims to minimise human error when monitoring secure areas and can autonomously monitor, track and detect security breaches. This keeps human operators out of harm’s way while giving them the information they need to inform their response.
The NDA is responsible for decommissioning the UK’s earliest nuclear sites safely, securely and sustainably.
The estate spans 17 nuclear sites across the UK, made up of around 950 hectares of designated land on which over 800 buildings are located, and security of these sites is paramount.
Innovative solutions are being sought to explore how the estate can be kept secure remotely to help augment existing arrangements, manage risks proportionately and deliver value for money for the taxpayer – with an ambition to look at how the technology could be utilised across other sectors.
Andrew Gray, the NDA’s Innovation Delivery Manager, said:
“Keeping our sites safe and secure is absolutely critical to delivering our mission in line with our regulatory obligations.
“We are continually seeking cutting edge technologies and innovative solutions to enable us to overcome the challenges we face in nuclear decommissioning, and deliver effectively and efficiently for the public.
“We look forward to seeing the concepts that are put forward and exploring how we can share the benefits more widely across the nuclear industry and other sectors.”
The competition will have a 6 month initial development phase followed by a 12 month test and evaluation phase on an NDA site.
Suppliers will be invited to a demonstration event after the 18 month contract is completed, where they will demonstrate their systems to stakeholders from across the Defence and Security and Nuclear Decommissioning communities.
Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites: Phase 2
Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites: Phase 2 seeks innovative capabilities that can augment traditional high security systems used to protect high security areas (HSA). This Themed Competition aims to develop technologies that can form the basis of an Autonomous Security Alarm and Interdiction Network (ASAIN). The ASAIN should be:
- easy to deploy and operate
- able to be integrated with other digital technologies
- highly autonomous
- built with an override functionality to allow an operator to control all system assets safely and at will
If you’re interested in joining this Themed Competition, it’s important to familiarize yourself with Phase 1 and previous activities. Take a look at the funded bids in Phase 1 of Remote Monitoring of Sensitive Sites here.
Collaboration is encouraged for this competition, and we will support this through a DASA hosted Collaboration Event and a match-making survey.
Key dates and funding
- £1.5 million (ex VAT) of funding has been provided by the NDA to fund contracts with a maximum value of £500,000 (ex VAT) each.
- We anticipate funding 3 to 5 proposals with contract durations no longer than 18 months to deliver stages 1-3.
- The contracts will aim to start in May 2024 and finish in November 2025
- A Collaboration Event will be taking place in Southampton on 17 January 2024
- Pre-bookable 1-2-1 telecom sessions will take place on 24 January 2024
The deadline for submissions is midday (GMT) on 5 March 2024.
Have an innovation? Read the full competition document and submit a proposal
Scope and challenge
This competition seeks innovative solutions to ensure the safety and security of NDA sites, with consideration paid to the delivery in line with the site risk reduction curve during the decommissioning process and delivering value for money.
Currently, NDA sites have high-level security measures in place designed to protect nuclear material (NM) and other Radiological Material (ORM). These current measures are diverse throughout the NDA group and are in line with associated risks. As the NDA’s decommissioning mission evolves, they are seeking more appropriate, efficient and/or cost-effective solutions for future security needs.
Replacement security systems will reduce the need for current measures, whilst also boosting confidence in detecting potential security breaches and enabling swift response.
Learn more in the full competition document and submit a proposal.
Collaboration Event and 1-2-1 sessions
If you are eager to collaborate, DASA and the NDA are hosting an in-person collaboration event on 17 January 2024 in Southampton to support initial conversation.
To express your interest in attending the collaboration event please go the Eventbrite page to register.
We are also providing the opportunity for you to attend a pre-bookable 1-2-1 telecom session on 24 January 2024 for you to ask your questions directly to the project team. Book your place here.
Submit a proposal
Can you help the NDA to achieve a step change improvement in its remote monitoring capabilities? If you have a viable security system that replaces traditional high security systems, DASA would like to hear from you. Read the full competition document and submit a proposal.
- DASA has launched a new Themed Competition: “It’s Good for Missiles to Talk” (Phase 2)
- Funding provided by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and forms part of the Cooperative Missile Project
- Up to £1.6 million (ex VAT) is available with an expectation to fund multiple proposals between £100,000 to £300,000 (ex VAT) over a maximum project duration of 12 months
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Themed Competition: It’s Good for Missiles to Talk Phase 2. The aim is to identify and develop novel technologies that could be exploited in the development of a new category of missile – cooperative missiles.
Cooperative missiles can communicate with each other, share situational awareness and organise themselves to ‘work together’ efficiently, during an engagement and within operator-set constraints, to achieve a common objective. The aim of the work is to:
- Develop technologies to deliver cooperative missiles
- Demonstrate how the capability could be integrated into future systems
The implementation of cooperative missiles will offer UK armed forces’ enhanced capability, providing a significant advantage in comparison to current capability. There are many benefits that can be realised. For example, considering collateral damage during missions or live safety data updates if non-combatants enter the battlefield post-launch. Cooperative missiles can share this vital information to ensure an abort function is carried out live during a mission, under human operator authority.
It is important to note that the operation of UK missile systems will always remain under human control and we are only interested in technologies that could enable cooperation between missiles within this context.
Key Dates and Funding
- Up to £1.6 million (ex VAT) is available for this competition with an expectation to fund multiple proposals between £100,000 to £300,000 (ex VAT) over a maximum project duration of 12 months
- Submission deadline is midday (GMT) on Tuesday 20 February 2024
- A Q&A webinar will take place on Tuesday 12 December 2023 with 1-2-1 sessions taking place on Tuesday 19 December and Tuesday 16 January 2024.
Can you deliver an innovation which could aid in the development of cooperative missiles? Read the full Competition Document
The Challenge Areas
This competition has five challenges:
- Distributed target detection and identification
- Data processing on board and between missiles
- Enhanced navigation through cooperation
- Finding and engaging multiple targets distributed over a wide area
- Novel Missile Communication Systems
Read more about the challenge areas in depth and the competition requirements in the full Competition Document
Phase 2 of this DASA competition builds on Phase 1 with more focused challenge areas. Proposals from innovators that seek to expand on their Phase 1 work are welcome, as well as innovators that are new the competition. Successful submissions into phase 2 will identify and increase the maturity of novel technologies to enable exploitation in future cooperative missile programs.
We encourage proposals where the innovation should output over a range of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3-5.
Successful proposals will present credible plans for progressing new, advanced technologies which could underpin a future cooperative missile.
Please note that throughout this competition UK missile strategic partners MBDA and Thales will provide technical support to the MOD competition team.
Supporting events
Tuesday 12 December 2023 – dial-in Q&A webinar. This session will provide further detail on the problem space from the MOD competition team and provide a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.
Tuesday 19 December 2023 and Tuesday 16 January 2024 – a series of 20 minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific questions to the MOD competition team. If you would like to participate, please register on the below Eventbrite page. Booking is on a first come first served basis.
1-2-1 Session Tuesday 19 December 2023 – Eventbrite link
1-2-1 Session Tuesday 16 January 2024 – Eventbrite link
Submit a proposal
Do you have a novel technology that could be exploited to help develop cooperative missiles? For full details and to submit a proposal, read the full Competition Document.
This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition builds on the previous Engineering Biology Phase 1 Competition launched in 2022. We are seeking new proposals that solve a range of Defence and Security challenges and enhance capability by applying engineering biology approaches. The Phase 1 Engineering Biology Competition demonstrated the potential of the technology (you can follow the links to the previously funded projects in “Synthetic biology for novel materials” Phase 1 and Phase 2 and Engineering Biology Phase 1). We are now expanding to further develop applications which identify and evaluate innovative engineering biology approaches to improve wider Defence and Security capability.
High-risk high-reward approaches are encouraged. However, there should be a plan to take the work to at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 for ‘Materials’ proposals, and at least TRL3 for both ‘Power and Energy’ and ‘Sensing’ proposals by the end of the end of Phase 2.
This competition is funded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and may also involve the US Department of Defense (DoD). The relationship will operate under, and be governed by, an extant memorandum of understanding between both nations. Both the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and other UK Government departments, and the US Department of Defense (DoD), will have access to proposals submitted under this competition in order to jointly assess which proposals to fund.
Submission deadline
Midday (GMT) Wednesday 17 January 2024.
Where do I submit my proposal?
Via the DASA Online Submission Service for which you will require an account. Only proposals submitted through the DASA Online Submission Service will be accepted.
Total funding available
The total funding available for the whole Phase 2 of the competition is £500k (ex VAT). This funding will be awarded for up to 12 months. Proposals must include a clear plan to complete the work by no later than 31 March 2025. There is no upper-limit per proposal for this competition, but as a guide, we are expecting to fund around 3-5 proposals in Phase 2. Additional proposals may be funded if further funding becomes available for up to 12 months.
Find out more by visiting here.
- DASA has launched a new Themed Competition: Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security
- Funded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
- Up to £750,000 funding available for disruptive, early stage ideas and concepts that may be used as the basis for further research within the Defence Science and Technology Futures (DSTF) Programme.
- The competition will be run over two phases
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Themed Competition: Novel Disruptive Science Impacting Future Defence and Security. Run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), this competition seeks exciting concepts, technologies or ideas that may disrupt the future of defence.
The outcome from Phase 1 of this competition is anticipated to be a pool of novel science and technology (S&T) ideas and concepts that may disrupt the defence landscape and have the potential to lead to radical change.
A disruptive impact is something that radically alters how we do things – this can be positive (e.g. a new capability becomes available) or negative (e.g. a new type of threat arises).
Upon completion of Phase 1, we will seek to direct further funds to a number of projects deemed to offer the most potential for Defence or Security. Phase 2 will see funded suppliers explore how to continue their research; the most promising suppliers may be allocated a proportion of £750,000 (ex VAT) to further mature their ideas or concepts.
Key dates and funding
- £750,000 (Exc. VAT) funding is available for this Themed Competition. The value of each funded submission is £50,000
- The deadline to submit a proposal is midday GMT Tuesday 5 December 2023
Do you have disruptive idea or concept? Read the full competition document and submit a proposal.
We are interested in low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) ideas (TRL 1-2) from any discipline that may disrupt current ways of innovating, which could in the future either benefit defence or security, or form the basis of countering a threat. We would like you to provide us with an exciting flavour of what might be possible and be disruptive.
Proposals submitted for this competition do not need to fulfil contemporary defence requirements.
To learn more about the challenge area of the competition, read the full competition document.
Supporting events
Webinar
- 31 October 2023 10:30 – 12:00pm GMT
This dial-in session will provide further details on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.
Submit a proposal
Do you have an innovation that may help develop new technologies or concepts that may disrupt the future of defence? Read the full competition document to learn more and submit a proposal.
Exciting News for Businesses in Caithness, Sutherland, and Orkney – Dive into Offshore Renewables!
Calling all businesses in Caithness, Sutherland, and Orkney with ambitions in the booming offshore renewable energy sector – the door is open for you to join the regional Fit For Offshore Renewables (F4OR) programme.
This game-changing F4OR supply chain growth initiative will be delivered by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and backed by a generous £125,000 contribution from the West of Orkney Windfarm, offshore wind power developer.
F4OR Caithness, Sutherland, and Orkney is extending a golden opportunity to up to seven companies, inviting them to embark on a demanding 12-18 month development journey. This programme has been meticulously crafted in collaboration with experts from the offshore wind industry, with a clear focus on elevating your business’s preparedness for the offshore renewable energy market.
For a comprehensive overview of the programme’s impact and achievements, please visit the link below to the F4OR Impact Report, freshly unveiled earlier this year, based on data from 2022.