A SEED funding organisation created to preserve Scotland's place as a world leader in robotic sensors is doubling the amount of cash it can dole out to projects.
The Scottish Sensors Systems Centre (S3C), which is jointly run by Glasgow and Aberdeen universities, will now offer maximum awards of £40,000 to research projects into sensors with potentially wide industrial application.
It also hopes to be selected to become one of the Scottish Funding Council's new innovation centres, which could help increase its funding pot from the current £1 million up to £25m over five years.
The centre, which has existed for just over a year, has so far funded 10 projects. These include a project between defence electronics group, Selex Galileo, and the University of the West of Scotland to use sensors to improve the image quality of cameras for military use.
Another is a project between Scottish Canals and the University of Strathclyde to install sensors on canal banks as early warning systems in, for instance, the event of flooding. Professor Steven Beaumont, one of the co-directors at the S3C and vice president of research and enterprise at Glasgow University, said that intellectual property from the canals project could have applications such as giving warning about rockfalls on roads or railways.
Of the decision to double the funding ceiling, he said: "We feel we are now getting enough traction with companies that we can identify projects that can justify larger resources.
"Also, some of the smaller projects have come to fruition and we think it's appropriate to put more money into them."
He said that Scotland had a long track record in sensor design, such as Thales Optronics, originally a Glasgow University spin-out whose sensors are used for missile strikes and reconnaissance, and Mode Diagnostics, which uses sensors to detect the early signs of bowel cancer.
The S3C is hoping to win £10m over five years from the innovation centre's initiative, and will hear by December. It is then aiming to leverage additional private funding to make £25m.
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