The licensing deal  between Scottish Enterprise and Design LED Products Ltd Livingston, to commercialise groundbreaking technology will help the company target the rapidly expanding lighting, LCD TV back-lighting and display market.

The new technology significantly improves energy efficiency, form factor and total cost of ownership on a wide range of LED lighting and display panels but no disclosure is made quantifying the license.

Developed under Scottish Enterprise’s Backlighting with Polymer Optics R&D commercialisation programme it was originally commissioned as part of the Intermediary Technology Institutes (ITIs), integrated into Scottish Enterprise’s commercialisation activities last year.

The licence enables Design LED to accelerate its high growth plans with projected annual sales revenue forecast to exceed £20m within 5 years.

The company will bring to market new technology for a variety of applications including consumer & professional LED lighting, LED LCD TV back-lighting, with the company having secured 'significant market engagement.'

LED lighting solutions global market alone is estimated at over €95bn by 2014, with 216m LCD TV back-light units forecast to ship that year. Design LED is well positioned to capitalise on both of these large and rapidly growing market sectors.

“The output allows us to move forward at real pace and to take significant share of a high growth market driven by government and environmental legislation and where we have significant competitive advantage,“ says (right)  CEO Stuart Bain. 

Dr Eleanor Mitchell, (left) director of Commercialisation at Scottish Enterprise, adds “By signing licensing deals with private sector companies we’re ensuring that the technology developed in Scotland benefits the Scottish economy."

Scottish Enterprise’s commercialisation efforts currently involve four new awards, through its Proof of Concept Programme (PoCP) to improve the level and quality of commercialisation within Scotland’s universities, research institutes and NHS Boards, translating research ideas into spin-out companies, creating high growth companies in Scotland.

The projects supported by PoCP are expected to result in a spin-out company or further licensing opportunities, creating similar business and economic benefits to that of the licensing deal between Scottish Enterprise and Design LED.

• New Platform for Clinical Diagnostics and Bio Analysis (University of Glasgow) for the life sciences sector. This project develops technology that can create low cost devices used at patients’ bedsides to process samples with electronic chips for the rapid and full detection of tuberculosis in humans and animals, worldwide market for point-of-care devices predicted to exceed £13bn by 2014, with £1.9bn driven by chip-based devices.

• Biodegradable Scaffolds for Functional Bone Repair (University of Edinburgh) the development and creation of readily available biodegradable materials to act as ‘scaffolds’ in the healing process of bone fractures. An ever-ageing population and adverse weather conditions is increasing demand to develop new ways to replace or repair damaged bones.

• Intelligent Plastics for Food Packaging (University of Strathclyde) for the food and drink sector will develop low cost alternative packaging for foods, specifically seafood and red meats, where coloured pigments indicate food spoilage. Pigment integrated in packaging reduces costs, removing need for expensive spoilt food indicator labels.

• Multifunctional Metal Organic Frameworks (University of St. Andrews) for chemicals and life sciences develops technology for tantibacterial coatings for a range of uses including packaging, textiles, paints, flooring, coatings, and healthcare applications such as medical devices and surgical instruments. Anti-bacterial market is estimated to be worth $25bn in 2010. Polyurethane products market in the US alone being $7.5bn in 2009.

Created in 1999, PoCP has invested a total of £4m in 212 projects, supporting development of new high growth technology businesses in Scotland, resulting in 52 new high-tech companies being formed and 60 licences signed.

Seen as a typical successful case study is the new digital fingerprinting GuardINQ software spinout, Inquisitive Systems from Napier Universuty, that  allows CCTV style monitoring of online systems. Biologically inspired the software digitally mimics DNA matching used in the real world and is both fast and scalable allowing cyber criminals to be tracked in seconds – potentially saving companies worldwide millions of pounds.

The fledgling company has attracted £170k of new funding from private investors as well as a SMART: Scotland award and Seed funding package, both from Scottish Enterprise.

Inquisitive Systems was shortlisted at the recent Global Security Challenge summit in London on its ability to fight cyber espionage and cyber terrorism.
“Put simply, we can now track cyber criminals 24/7,” said Dr Jamie Graves (left) CEO and co-founder of Inquisitive Systems. “The GuardInQ technology enables us to identify their digital fingerprints and prove that a certain person was behind illegal changes made to data – which gives a higher level of proof when it comes to prosecuting data crime."

With the Highlands and Islands to hopefully have its own university, now the UHI Millennium Institute cleared a major hurdle to it achieving its aim of becoming the University of the Highlands and Islands, next year could perhaps even see some hightech emerging from north of the traditionally favoured central belt institutions.

Following a Board meeting last week the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) will be formally advising Scottish Government that it has assessed UHI as fully meeting the quality and standards that university title carries with it.

James Fraser, (right) UHI principal, said: “It would be an understatement to say we are delighted, but we must contain our celebrations until a final decision is made by the Privy Council. "

"We very much hope that the people of the Highlands and Islands will have something wonderful to celebrate in the new year when they finally have a university of their own.”