This award will fund the ongoing work of the Innovation Portal, based at the University of Dundee, and BioDundee and is also backing a new project, the BioPortal.

The BioPortal is an innovative new project designed to further enable Tayside research institutes to form stronger links with the Scottish life sciences industry by providing a match-making service of intellectual property and skilled postdoctoral researchers with needs of small-to-medium sized businesses, or SMEs.

The BioPortal project has been designed and developed by Research and Innovation Services at the University of Dundee to address specific barriers that prevent effective transfer of innovation from research institutes to SMEs.

Barriers include the risk element associated in technology development, the financial, human and skills shortages often experienced by SMEs, and the ability to identify and access novel technologies, which is a particular resource constraint for many small companies within the sector.

'We are delighted with these awards of funding from ERDF and SEEKIT. It allows us to continue the good work of the Innovation Portal and BioDundee and also provide further focus on our excellence in Life Sciences at Dundee,' said Diane Taylor, director of Research and Innovation Services at  Dundee university and chair of the Portal Steering Group.

'Developing our Portal Business Model in this way demonstrates our commitment and ability to positively engage with the Scottish SME sector.'

Key facet of the project will be to increase the ease of access by Scottish SMEs to the intellectual property of the Universities and JHI by introducing risk sharing and no- or low-entry costs to reduce the barriers to innovation for the companies.

This new project has also created a new opportunity that will allow postdoctoral researchers to more readily move from academia to industry, generating a skilled workforce, and most importantly retaining that workforce in Scotland.