Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) is calling on Scotland’s construction businesses to put forward their proposals for how automation could be used to increase efficiency or improve quality, with the chance for five businesses to receive up to £10,000 worth of funding and support to test their ideas.

CSIC helps construction related businesses to innovate, collaborate and grow by matching innovation requirements with business support and academic specialists. Now, in partnership with the Structural Timber Association, it is seeking Scottish companies which have innovative ideas on how the offsite manufacturing cell in CSIC’s Innovation Factory – which can complete a range of timber framing processes - could be used.

Up to five ‘winners’ will be chosen to receive a mix of funding and support up to a value of £10,000, including access to CSIC’s network of academic partners, in-house technical specialists and 35,000 sq. ft. Innovation Factory in Hamilton. The Innovation Factory contains 16 pieces of state-of-the-art prototyping and design equipment, including an industrial robot, a collaboration robot, a multi-material 3D printer, a CLT vacuum press, and 4 Edge Planer.

Further details about the innovation call will be available at a free industry event to discuss the future of automation in construction, which will be hosted at CSIC’s Innovation Factory on 29 May. The programme will include a demonstration of the Innovation Factory’s offsite manufacturing cell and talks from SP Technology and CCG.

Fiona MacDonald, business relationship manager at CSIC, said: “This is a chance for construction companies to unleash the next big innovation and directly improve their own bottom line by testing out their ideas for new automated processes which will help them operate more efficiently.

“The normal costs of exploring new ideas with state-of-the art equipment can be seen as inaccessible, but this innovation call, accompanied by the support available from CSIC, provides companies with a fantastic opportunity develop new ideas, improve efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage.”

Interested parties should submit a short outline of their ideas by no later than 22 June 2018.

Successful applicants will then be invited to further develop their ideas through a full proposal.

Find out more about the innovation call and application process by contacting Fiona MacDonald, fmacdonald@cs-ic.org.

To register for the Digital Construction: Automation event on 29 May, visit here.