Many of you will have seen the news about funding for the Innovation Centre programme on 17 January. We can confirm that CENSIS will not receive infrastructure funding from the Scottish Funding Council.
When the Innovation Centres programme began in 2013, it was always envisioned that its funding model would evolve over time, as the Centres became more self-sustaining. After 10 successful years of delivering economic and social impact together, CENSIS is now in a position to explore other funding options which are better aligned with our future aims and objectives. CENSIS’s immediate future is secure and it is business as usual for us. CENSIS is already on the road to becoming self-sufficient. Our involvement on projects is unaffected.
We will continue to deliver value and impact for our public and private sector partners. Several of the innovative start-ups we have supported are already part of the Scottish National Investment Bank portfolio, and in the public sphere CENSIS is proud to have been named as a delivery partner in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation implementation plan. More widely, we will maintain our strong relationships with the Scottish Government and local government, through our work on the CivTech programme and with the Scottish Local Government Digital Office.
CENSIS is very much still here and we remain committed to our mission of delivering positive economic and social impact for Scotland.