Exclusive: The Intermediary Technology Institutes scheme is involved in renewed controversy, with the programme set to incur hefty losses on a flagship battery project and facing a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation from a former director.

The Intermediary Technology Institutes scheme is involved in renewed controversy, with the programme set to incur hefty losses on a flagship battery project and facing a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation from a former director.

The energy arm of the commercialisation programme could lose around £4m after the American firm that bought the Plurion battery programme failed to make a deferred payment for the bulk of the purchase price that was due on July 1.

The company concerned, Applied Intellectual Capital, had originally been due to make the payment to ITI energy in February.

Despite enjoying a four-month breathing space, AIC has failed to hand over any of the money.

With many technology firms struggling to raise funding amid the fall-out from the credit crunch, the omens do not look good. AIC recently delisted from the AIM stock market after saying it was unlikely to secure sufficient funding to be able to retain its listing.

The company's failure to meet the revised schedule means that more than a year after agreeing to sell Plurion to AIC for £5.6m, the ITI has received only £1.7m of the purchase price.

As well as potentially leaving a hole in the programme's finances, the problems mean the future of what it was hoped would become a Scottish industry leader looks bleak.

Staff at ITI energy were so excited by Plurion's plans to develop huge batteries capable of powering homes that it invested £9.3m in a venture with the firm in 2005.

In 2007, the Scottish Executive awarded Plurion a £4m Regional Selective Assistance Award to support the creation of hundreds of jobs at Methil, Fife.

Two years later, only a handful of jobs have materialised.

Headquartered in California, AIC took control of Plurion in a £5.56m deal with ITI last February. It paid £1.7m then and deferred payment of the remainder plus any interest due.

However, AIC lost $26m in the year to July.

Last year the company warned its continued existence depended on negotiating an extension of the deadline for repaying the money to ITI.

After long-running negotiations, in January ITI allowed the firm to defer payment of the money due on February 1 to July 1. It agreed to forego the $1m interest payable to February 1.

Prior to the announcement that a delay had been granted, a spokesman said: "ITI has seen the business plan, which we think is ambitious in the current economic climate. That was not received particularly well by the ITI board."

After winning the extension, AIC told investors: "The Board believes AIC will be able to reach a timely and acceptable resolution of these matters concerning ITI and Plurion."

The next month AIC said it was delisting from AIM.

A spokesperson for ITI insisted that it still hoped to create some value from the project.

He said: "We have agreed to extend negotiations with AIC regarding the repayment of any outstanding debt and are exploring how best we can exploit the intellectual property developed through the research programme with Plurion to do this."

Separately, an authority on renewable energy who was director of strategy and business development at ITI energy has lodged a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation against ITI Scotland, which is scheduled to be heard by an employment tribunal.

The case has been launched by Georges Dupont-Roc, who was recruited to play a key role at ITI after an illustrious career in the energy industry in 2004 but left last year.

Dupont-Roc was credited with getting Shell to take renewable energy seriously while serving as a director in its London planning division.

A spokesperson for ITI Scotland said: "We can confirm that a tribunal date has been set to discuss this complaint later this month.

"We are following the appropriate legal process and it would be inappropriate to comment further until this has been completed."

The developments will fuel calls for a post-mortem to be completed on the ITI programme.

Three ITIs - energy, life sciences and techmedia - were established as stand-alone ventures with a total £450m budget in 2002 to identify promising areas of research that Scotland could turn to its commercial advantage.

The programme was brought under Scottish Enterprise's direct control in January.