New £200,000 investment in geospatial technology

The Scottish and UK governments have launched a new £200,000 joint investment in geospatial technology, with the aim of unlocking up to £11bn in benefits for the UK economy.

The UK Government Geospatial Commission, working with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, is creating the new Scottish Geospatial Network Integrator to improve the use of location-based data in Scotland.

The new network integrator project will enhance the use of location-based data by helping to build a dedicated network of geospatial organisations across Scotland.

It will also raise awareness of the importance of geospatial data in other areas of the economy, such as the tourism, food and drink, and farming sectors, while helping new companies find support.

Announcing the investment, Thalia Baldwin, Geospatial Commission director, said: “Realising the UK’s national geospatial strategy requires collective effort, connecting policy, data, people and systems and today’s announcement demonstrates how we can work on shared goals with both Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government to grow Scotland’s geospatial and wider data community.”

Ian Blewett, head of digital economy at Scottish Enterprise, added: “Location data is used across society, from governments taking infrastructure decisions; shipping companies planning logistics; to public health. The recent use of data around COVID-19 tracking is bringing the value of geospatial data into sharp focus too.

“The Network Integrator project will bring together businesses, public sector and academia to create opportunities for innovation to benefit not only the economy, but also society, with data as an intrinsic part of efficient and impactful decision making.

“Scotland is well placed due to having many sectors that depend on geospatial data as well as a strong established ecosystem. Not only that, but the development taking place in the space sector around the creation and use of Earth observation data adds to the wealth of geospatial data that continues to drive forward innovation. This excellent partnership being delivered by Optimat on behalf of the UK Geospatial Commission, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise will build on this and support future growth.”