Ten applications were received for CSIC and FCS’s recent Advanced Timber Products Innovation Challenge, which aimed to encourage the Scottish timber technologies sector to innovate. The seven successful companies were:

These seven companies will share 120 days of free access to CSIC’s £3m state-of-the-art Innovation Factory facility at Hamilton International Technology Park, with all technical support also included. Each company will also receive a membership to the Innovation Factory, allowing them future access to the factory facilities at a preferential rate.

The Innovation Factory, the only facility of its kind in the UK, offers the construction industry 35,000 sq. ft. of workshop space filled with production and prototyping equipment and technology. Equipment on offer includes an off-site manufacturing cell, digital router, CLT vacuum press and glue adaptor, pilot insulation line and an industrial robot.

The Innovation Factory also provides a range of collaboration and training facilities to allow organisations in the private, public and academic sectors to share knowledge and information.

Lucy Black, head of business relationships at CSIC, said: “We’ve been really encouraged by the response to our Innovation Challenge and the high quality of the projects from the applicants. We were originally looking for two to five projects to support, so to have seven successful applications is fantastic. It’s also great that the applications have come from companies from across Scotland, including large established leaders as well as smaller players, who are a critical part of the Scottish timber engineering and offsite manufacturing sectors.

“The successful companies are working on a wide range of exciting projects from across the timber spectrum, from prototyping new modular housing models in CLT to trialling the blowing of wood fibre insulation into innovative offsite systems and employing robotics in different areas of the production process to increase efficiency and quality. I’m really looking forward to seeing the projects progress.”