An independent evaluation of the programme’s 55 projects totalling £55m of investment since 2004 has found that it has helped to generate a further £350m of private sector investment, creating 1,300 R&D jobs with the potential to support 28,500 additional jobs in associated activities by 2019.
The report was unveiled yesterday as Scottish Enterprise chairman Crawford Gillies visited FMC Technologies, the latest company to benefit from the programme after receiving a £2.8m grant to help double the capacity of its subsea product centre in Bellshill.
FMC Dunfermline will invest £17.6m over the next five years in the project aimed at enhancing its intervention systems, used to maintain and prolong the life of subsea oil wells.
It is the second R&D project FMC’s Dunfermline operation has undertaken with support from SE.
In 2008, a new R&D facility was opened in Bellshill to develop optoelectronics-based products for the “digital oilfield”, creating 17 new jobs. A substantial part of the company’s global spend on subsea R&D will now be spent in Scotland at these two facilities. Crawford Gillies said: “More than two thirds of the private sector investment generated through the programme has come directly from companies headquartered outside Scotland, highlighting our world class capabilities and growing international reputation as a first class location for developing new ideas and technology.”
David Currie, managing director of FMC Technologies in Dunfermline, said: “This support is directly focused in two key areas for ourselves, technology development and the creation and growth of innovative and technically-led employment here in Scotland.”
