Tech spin-out targets thin film market potential
24 Aug 2022
A new Scottish university-inspired venture is combining academic and commercial know how to target demand for monitoring technology for industrial processes.
AlbaSense is the brainchild of University of the West of Scotland professor Des Gibson, based at the organisation’s Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging (ITFSI).
The third so-called spin-out company to merge from the university’s commercial arm, it is targeting the market for thin films and sensors.
The aim is to license economical and high performing thin film optical coatings and photonic sensors developed by Gibson and five fellow academics, doctors David Hutson, Shigeng Song, Lewis Fleming, Parag Vichare and Ewan Waddell (pictured).
Globally the sector is valued at an estimated £2.5 billion and this is the target for UWS’s third spin-out company to date.
Gibson said the firm will combine academic expertise with strong industry links that would bring “economic benefits to UWS, contributing directly to Scotland’s thriving innovation economy”.
Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spin-Out Programme is investing funding over a three year period worth £528,000 overall. Scotland's Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things is giving two project funds to the venture which has also received three Innovate UK projects and a Horizon 2020 project, to develop AlbaSense’s patented technology for end use.
A combined British Business Bank, Innovation UK and UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) joint report this year highlighted Scottish universities’ key role in spin-out investment, saying that nearly one fifth of spin-out investments involved Scots higher education institutions.
Pic: Elaine Livingstone
