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Strategic Scientific Consulting Finland Oy – A 10-year Journey

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:07:58 GMT

Strategic Scientific Consulting Finland Oy – 10 vuoden matka

Aika rientää nopeasti, kun saa tehdä innostavaa työtä mielenkiintoisten ja haastavien asiakasprojektien parissa. Olin haaveillut jo pitkään yrittäjyydestä ja melkein jo ryhdyn yrittäjäksi vuonna 2010. Innoituksena oli erittäin hyvä ystäväni Cait, johon olin tutustunut yli 20 vuotta aikaisemmin työn merkeissä ja hän oli jo ryhtynyt yrittäjäksi. Vuonna 2010 en vielä kuitenkaan uskaltanut hypätä yrittäjäksi, mutta vuonna 2015 olin valmis toteuttamaan haaveeni ja perustin yritykseni, joka aloitti toimintansa 1.11.2015.

Päätöstä helpotti, että Caitin kanssa suunnittelimme, että tarjoamme yritystemme palveluja yhden luukun (SSC) kautta, jolloin asiakas saa helposti laajasti eri asiantuntija palveluja omiin tarpeisiinsa. Näin ei myöskään tarvinnut olla vain oman osaamisen ja resurssin varassa.

Asiakkaita meillä on ollut eri toimialoilta, kuten lääke- ja diagnostiikka teollisuus, energiateollisuus, IT, kiertotalous ja hyvinvointi, sekä eri organisaatioista niin start-up ja pk-yrityksestä ja kuin yliopistoista. Olemme auttaneet esimerkiksi markkinakartoituksissa, liiketoimintasuunnitelmien valmistelussa, rahoitushakemusten teossa, markkinoinnissa ja myynnissä, kansainvälistymisessä sekä pitchaus-, kaupallistamis- ja esiintymistaidonkoulutuksissa.

Olemme Caitin kanssa hyvin samanhenkisiä eli meillä synkkaa hyvin ja tuemme toisiamme vaikeinakin hetkinä. Lomia olemme viettäneet yhdessä perheinemme niin Suomen Lapissa hiihtäen ja Järvi-Suomessa juhannusta kuin Glasgow’ssa ja Dundee’ssa tutustuen mielenkiintoisiin nähtävyyksiin.

Ja matka jatkuu yhdessä.

Strategic Scientific Consulting Finland Oy – A 10-year Journey

Time flies fast, when one has inspiring work among interesting and challenging customer projects. I had dreamed a long time about entrepreneurship, and I almost founded a company already in 2010. My enthusiasm for entrepreneurship was my very good friend Cait, who was already an entrepreneur. In 2010 I did not yet have the courage to found the company, but in 2015 I was ready to make my dream come true and I founded Strategic Scientific Consulting Finland Oy, starting operations on 1.11.2015.

The decision was easier, since we planned with Cait, that we will provide the services of our companies through one-stop service (SSC) allowing customers pick wider range of expert services that they need different purposes. Personally, it was also a relief, thus I did not need to rely only on my own expertise and resources.

We have served customers from many different fields, such as pharma and diagnostic, energy, IT, circular economy and wellbeing as well as from different organisations as start-ups, SMEs and universities. We have helped, for instance with market assessments, business plans, funding applications, internationalization, as well as proving training on pitching, commercialisation and presentation skills.

We are, with Cait very like-minded; great minds think alike, and we support each other also in hard times. We have spent vacations together with our families in Finland, at Lapland skiing and at Lake-Finland Mid-Summer time, and in Scotland at Glasgow and at Dundee exploring attractions.

And the journey together continues …….

SSC Market Research - A Personal Perspective

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:58:09 GMT

Market Research – A Personal Perspective

We live in a time when businesses are surrounded by data. Dashboards flash, reports pile up, and metrics seem to multiply by the day. But even with all that information at our fingertips, I often find myself asking the same question with clients: What does it all really mean?

Because turning numbers and raw data into something useful, something that actually informs decisions, takes more than analysis. It takes understanding, curiosity, and a willingness to look beneath the surface. And a personal touch.

That’s why I’ve always believed that the best market research isn’t just about gathering information. It’s about making sense of it, connecting data to context, and insight to strategy.

Over the years, I’ve come to see market research as much about people as it is about information. The real value comes from understanding behaviour: how people think, what influences them, and why they make the choices they do.

I try to approach every project the way a great scientist might approach an experiment: with curiosity, structure and also the experience to challenge assumptions.

Also, the challenge isn’t collecting data; it’s making sense of it. Most organisations already have plenty of numbers. What they need is a way to connect those numbers to meaningful business decisions.

That’s where experience really matters. As both a business manager & consultant, I’ve spent years helping organisations bridge that gap, translating findings into insight, and insight into strategy. For me, research should always lead somewhere: to a sharper decision, a better product, or a clearer sense of direction.

A key tool of good research is good interviewing. I’m a people-person with a knack for good conversation. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that great research interviewing starts with good conversation and great questions. The questions that make you stop and think. For example:

“What’s changing in your market that no one’s paying attention to yet?”
“How do your customers describe value?”
“Given a magic wand, what would you change for the better in your market?”

As a consultative interviewer for many years, I know that questions like these open the door to discovery.

And that’s what keeps me passionate about this work. At Strategic Scientific Consulting, we focus on turning complexity into clarity - not by chasing the latest tool or trend, but by asking the right questions and taking the time to understand the answers.

I’m a firm believer that when you truly understand your customers, your competitors and your context, every decision becomes a little smarter and every opportunity, a little clearer.

Andrew King

SSC Consultant

A Focus on Carbon Footprint Reduction

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 10:22:58 GMT

A Focus on Carbon Footprint Reduction

The SSC team have just been through a Carbon Literacy course (Carbon provided by Wendy Finnegan-White – need link) which was a fun, brain stretching, team building exercise that has renewed and reinvigorated all of us about the need for action at an individual and company level around the climate emergency.

Whether you believe it or not, whether you see it as a priority or not for your business, Net Zero is an issue that can’t be avoided for much longer for any of us.

As a result of the course SSC will be looking again for Carbon Footprint reductions we can build into our working week including:

selection of utilities providers including banking, IT/cloud suppliers,

travel policy, expanding this to our accommodation criteria as well as transport

product offerings – how we can formalise our assistance for Net Zero Scope 1,2,3 and bring SDG goals & impacts into all the business plans and grant applications we provide.

SSC has been working to create and support companies with a sustainable development focus over the past decade, and we can see how companies can benefit from embracing carbon reduction thinking into their innovation plans, into their production plans and into their business engagement plans, but we haven’t been the best at promoting what we do and what we advocate for to our community.

That needs to change, and it will.

We have been walking the walk, and we need to be a lot less shy about talking the talk – We can be world leaders in this area, showing technical and scientific innovators how they can embrace carbon reduction in their business and have a better balance for people, product and planet.

Dr Cait Murray Green, CEO SSC

SSC tiimi kävi Hiililukutaito-kurssin (Carbon Literacy course), jonka järjesti Wendy Finnegan-White. Kurssi oli hauska, aivojumppaa, ja samalla tiimin vahvistamisharjoitus. Se virkisti ja uusi ajatuksiamme tarvittavista toimenpiteistä ilmastokriisin ympärillä, niin henkilökohtaisella kuin yritys tasolla. Me SSC:ssä pystymme olemaan edelläkävijöitä tällä aihealueella ja osoittamaan tekniikan ja tieteen innovaattoreille, kuinka he voivat omaksua hiilidioksidipäästöjen vähentämisen osaksi yritystoimintaansa, ja saada paremman tasapainon ihmisten, tuotteiden ja maapallon välille.

Dr Anna-Marja Hoffrén, Founder of Strategic Scientific Consulting Finland Oy

Helping to Develop the Seaweed Industry

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:23:52 GMT

Helping to Develop the Seaweed Industry

Seaweed has a key role to play in providing biomass and raw material for multiple industries as they move to eco-friendly and sustainable products and processes. However, creating a viable seaweed industry in the UK is challenging as there is investment needed in rural areas for infrastructure and facilities and existing seaweed companies are struggling to gain traction.

Strategic Scientific Consulting together with Argyll Aquaculture has been working with community representatives from Sutherland in the far north of Scotland to create a plan for development of seaweed industry activities in their area to create jobs and to encourage re-population. The business plan supports the establishment of seaweed production and processing alongside innovation facilities to help support a wider economic base of micro-companies. Sites for seaweed farming and shore gathering of multiple species have been identified to create year-round sources of seaweed supporting quality jobs. The key factors are starting operations at scale large enough to be of interest to companies already producing high demand items from seaweed and ensuring local easy access to stabilisation and processing to be able to service the needs of a range of customers.

Grant funding from Highland Council through the Regeneration Fund enabled the communities to engage the services of experts to work with local representatives to create a plan that embraces the environmental, social and economic aspects of creating a sustainable viable business proposition as part of the NW2045 vision.

Dr Cait Murray-Green of Strategic Scientific Consulting says “Working with the communities to create a business plan that represents their ambition and needs whilst addressing the complex factors of creating a viable seaweed business in a remote rural area has been an honour.”

Stevie Jarron of Argyll Aquaculture says “The communities of Assynt, Scourie and Kinlochbervie have been very engaged and supportive of how seaweed can complement their existing fishery and aquaculture businesses.”

Margaret Meek of Kinlochbervie Community Company says, “It has been a pleasure to work with Cait and Stevie on a project that has proceeded as timetabled and completed on time.”

Strategic Scientific Consulting offer business support services for technologists, scientists and budding entrepreneurs in Finland, Scotland and across the world. They have expertise in sustainability and eco-economy, excelling at market research and using it to create routes to market and sales also identifying funding and to prepare applications and pitches for investment.

Argyll Aquaculture is Scotland’s Premier seaweed farming consultancy, specialising in site selection, licensing process and operational development of seaweed cultivation

The Kinlochbervie Community Company is a charitable company founded in 2008. Our aim is to initiate and develop community improvement projects. Current projects include Loch Clash Pier, the Manse Road houses and Community Broadband.

Download this Press Release

2024: A Year of Achievement!

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 14:31:41 GMT

This has been a busy year for SSC.

· 8 new clients

· 2 start-ups taken from idea to pitching – they are waiting for funding at this time.

· 100% success rate on grant funding applications

· Doubled the size of the SSC team

We have been working with several universities in Scotland, rest of UK and in Finland on a variety of market research and scoping projects across Biotech, Robotics, AI and Education support.

We have been involved in 9 projects for start-ups coming from the wider entrepreneurial landscape, ranging from individuals through to established companies considering their own spin-outs. Two of them, PolyMara

and ElderThrive are now awaiting funding to be able to move forward to operations and employing staff. This is a record for us, and it feels like a milestone accomplishment!

The individuals have come with excellent ideas where they needed help getting business plans for funding and help putting their team together, and it has been wonderful to see the benefits of our wider reach from our expanded team helping to locate skills and resource for them.

Helping fully formed companies divest ideas into new business units or spin-outs has been a new area for us, it is a different set of challenges from working with universities towards the same outcome, but no less interesting.

We have had the opportunity to work with community development companies seeking ambitious outcomes and focussing on re-population of their areas and creation of quality jobs.

Cait has again been involved with EU project grant assessments and we have been grant writing too, helping to plan the strategy of which grant funds to apply for as well contributing to the narrative and the editing.

One of the other areas where SSC excels is being able to offer additional resource for activities such as sales , useful when a company is wanting to step into a new territory but can’t yet justify the recruitment of an employee of their own. This year we were able to work with a Finnish company WellO2 as they explored the UK market and Cait was on-hand at the Glasgow Vegan Fest assisting Naked Kimchi as they showcased their produce. Our prizes of strategy sessions for Scottish EDGE winning companies have also helped companies think about how to be efficient and effective with their time.

Back in Feb we put up a blog about setting challenges and giving yourself and your company targets that are outside the pure economic zone so we’re thinking it is timely to review our own progress in that area.

We have found working with community projects very interesting and therapeutic. The visit to Barra was particularly inspiring seeing how a small population can pull together and plan for the future.

The expansion of the SSC team has been a large milestone, the feeling that we have achieved critical mass, assembled a team that covers all aspects of putting a business together for a range of technical areas has been useful but also a confidence boost allowing us to dream bigger for ourselves as well as our clients.

Cait has been involved with Scottish EDGE as a panel judge and Ansku has continued with her role mentoring companies with NOME . Keeping active in the entrepreneurial community in Nordic and UK helps to get us out of the office and interacting with new sectors and innovations.

And we have also managed to achieve our ambition of being able to take a proper summer break, stopping all business activity for a month and making sure that we all got a chance to relax, recharge and spend time in nature and with friends and family.

Looking ahead to 2025 SSC feels a more busy, confident place with a really good team able to help and it feels like we are strongly aligned with our mission and ethos to help business ideas emerge and grow within a collaborative, collegiate, and supportive approach.

20 Years!

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 10:23:00 GMT

20 Years!

Linkedin has kindly reminded us that Strategic Scientific Consulting has been around for 20 years. Quite the achievement.

It has gone from a mostly unplanned 1-person company that was formed because having a limited company was a requirement for a contract working with a group of organisations in Finland, it has found its own feet, developed its own strategy and it has been put into cold storage and unused for a couple of years as well as being re-activated. This iteration has been around since 2010 and definitely not a 1 man show, as we have 10 active associates across the UK and Finland. Strength comes from numbers and we benefit from the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience that we have within the team.

Over the years we have expanded our confidence and experience with different industries. Initially we focussed only on our historic strengths of software for life sciences R&D, but now we work across the full spectrum of industries. We keep to the same principle of working only with projects and companies where we really feel we can bring benefit and where we will have fun in the process. The chemistry fit needs to be right for us to be able to develop a trusting working relationship so we can truly get to grips with the challenges our clients are facing and therefore help to find solutions and strategies that actually work.

So a big thank-you to the >100 clients that we have worked with along the way. It has been a pleasure and an honour. We have been privileged to be part of your journey and have taken great pleasure in seeing your growth and achievements.

Here’s to the next decade!

SSC Team Expands!

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:34:06 GMT

Introducing Our Team Members!

One of the challenges that Ansku and Cait set for SSC was to expand the team, to bring in additional resources across all of the things you need to create the perfect business plan, funding application and getting your idea out of your head and into the marketplace.

We have already achieved our goal, and it’s only halfway through the year.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Tracy White, Mr Stevie Jarron, Ms Jen Nicoll and Ms Viv Hu-Adams have joined the SSC group.

Tracy has great experience on the technical side, complementing Cait and Ansku’s chemistry knowledge with microbiology. She has a depth of experience of start-up life; understands how to write grant applications, work with a board, plan research milestones and train up staff – all whilst retaining her passion and interest in exciting science.

Stevie is well known for his seaweed farm design services, but he also has a career history of environmental science and sustainability which brings a strong practical aspect to understanding projects relating to natural materials.

Jen Nicoll has a passion for working with start-up stage companies and helping to ascertain the business model for sustainable growth. Her career history includes leadership roles with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Lothian Broadband.

Viv Hu-Adams comes to us with a solid reputation in technical sales and business development matched with strong scientific knowledge of cell biology. Her skills include crafting marketing strategy and messages as well as sales operations.

Together as a group of 10 we cover all your needs.

Barra Leading the Way for a Sustainable Future

Wed, 22 May 2024 15:06:18 GMT

Barra Leading the Way for a Sustainable Future.

Last month SSC were fortunate to be invited to Isle of Barra & Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides to work with local entrepreneurs and businesses to understand their challenges and help brainstorm for solutions to help grow their businesses.

The islanders are leaders in understanding sustainable development and are taking part in a pilot scheme (Carbon Neutral Islands) to achieve Net Zero by 2040. It is abundantly clear that this is a population who really understand the need for balance between culture, society, environment, and economic viability.

There are challenges for sure; being a remote community reliant on ferry and air connectivity often effected by weather with a high dependence on tourism and fishing for income they have been impacted by both Brexit and Covid significantly.

Their response has been to work together to find solutions, to create plans for the future which will underpin their evolution to a greener, smarter economy retaining and expanding their localism focus.

The summary report is available here:

"..... a deeper understanding of our business"

Mon, 06 May 2024 21:07:45 GMT

"....... a deeper understanding of our business."

We're very proud of our credentials when it comes to helping clients with business strategy & planning and providing assistance in preparation of grant applications.

One of those clients is East Coast Cured . They are Edinburgh’s first family charcuterie company launched in 2017.

Their Porcini & Truffle salami won the meat category at the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards in 2018 and took the artisanal category in 2019. Their whisky-oak smoked nduja won the meat category in 2019 and they won Scottish Food Product of the Year at The Scotsman (newspaper) Food and Drink Awards 2019.

Co-owned with husband, Steven, Susie Anderson kindly shared her thoughts on the help provided by SSC:

“ We used Strategic Scientific in 2022 to support our food manufacturing business with a large grant application which required a detailed business plan. We had no experience of this kind of application or working with a consultant on this kind of project. Strategic Scientific was recommended to us by the team at Scottish EDGE.

We worked with Strategic Scientific over a period of 6 months. From the off-set Cait and team were professional, efficient and communicated well. They were on hand for queries and support when needed, always going above & beyond. They spent time getting to know & understand our business & values and were able to offer genuinely useful insights & guidance. They sought out & summarised key market information, helped clarify our mission & core values and gave us the head space to delve deep into strategy at a time when we were all consumed with operations.

We now have a deeper understanding of our business - the market in which we're operating, our product, customer, impact & what we want for the future. We wouldn't hesitate to use Strategic Scientific for future grant applications or refreshing our business plan. ”

You can find more about the success of East Coast Cured here: https://www.eastcoastcured.com/

"Make Your Voice and Message Heard"

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 15:22:43 GMT

You’ll be aware that SSC have a great team of skilled teaching professionals who have grown their knowledge from long careers working in industry. We have

practical business experience and love to share that knowledge with others.

Of course we’re very proud of what we do but it’s even better when you hear it directly from your own customers.

Niina Karvinen is a project manager for the Erasmus+-funded Blueprint project called the European Social Innovation Campus, ESIC, at the Diaconia University of Applied Sciences in Finland,

at their Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovations.

After working with SSC on several occasions, Niina was happy to share her thoughts:

“While working at Oulu University, I had the opportunity to provide Strategic Scientific Consulting courses to my PhD students and university researchers and participate myself. In the Presentation Skills and Productization of Your Own Expertise Training courses, the contents were carefully planned, identifying the needs of the individual participants and engaged students with tailored learning tasks in various ways during the courses.

The participant feedback supports this finding and I was delighted with the outcomes. I still use what I learned in the classes in my everyday life, both in my work and as a PhD student!

I highly recommend the customised training offered by Strategic Scientific Consulting for universities and business professionals. These training packages, together with highly talented coaches, can strengthen skills and help you make your voice and message heard”.

Thanks Niina!

For more information on SSC Skills for Business, Click on "Services: Courses" from this website menu

Challenges for 2024- Embracing Sustainable Development

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 10:39:57 GMT

It’s now February, the darkest shortest days of the year are behind us and hopefully the weather will improve. All that periphery stuff really makes a difference to the wellbeing of a team, even if no-one suffers from SAD the extra effort of getting anywhere, or just keeping awake when all your sensory inputs are telling you to hibernate can take a toll.

For businesses this is the time of the year when we often look at goals, set targets, adjust the budget plan and try to inject enthusiasm into the projects and workforce.

Looking at the challenges for your company – how many of them that have been set are purely focussed on economic outcomes? How well is your company embracing and challenging itself on the environmental impact or social impact of what you are about?

If you are thinking about any grant application in the coming year, you are more than likely to see sections on economic, social and environmental impact, on your plan for Net Zero and your approach to diversity. These areas are important, they are worth consideration rather than a rushed paragraph or two just before hitting submit.

For us at SSC, Sustainable Development is a big thing. We truly believe that embracing a better world, with better products and a reduced inequality gap is the best route for businesses everywhere. Profit is important, but it is only part of the package.

Having clarity on your status against Net Zero Scope 1, 2 and 3 is going to become increasingly important for the supply chain of all your customers. Why not get ahead on that as well?

If any of these areas (Net Zero, Grant applications, Sustainable Development measurables) are important to you or you want to address them in your 2024 challenges then let us know and we can assist with a strategy session.

Dr Cait Murray-Green

Net Zero and Transitioning to Sustainability

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 11:02:39 GMT

As business leaders, some of us are starting to get our heads around Net Zero and Scope 1, 2 and 3 requirements. Some of us will be making progress with Life Cycle Analysis; perhaps also traceability of our products and services.

And others will be baffled by all the above.

So let’s start with a refresh of terminologies. Sustainability is about balancing the needs of turning a profit, with environmental impact and also with communities and culture. Those three elements are often referred to as the three pillars of sustainable development.

Net Zero is about creating zero impact by balancing the harm of creation of greenhouse gases against practices which actively absorb them. The term is often interchanged with Carbon Neutral or climate neutral but Net Zero is about eliminating carbon from your business footprint without having to mitigate against the harms and Net Zero isn’t just about Carbon Dioxide, it’s also looking at the other greenhouse gases, Methane. Nitrous Oxide and hydrofluorocarbons.

The top emitter countries are: China, USA, India, Russia and Japan

Top emitter industries are:

But it is important that all companies and all industries look at their impact and understand where their carbon footprint comes from.

This is where Scope 1, 2 and 3 come in.

Scope 1 emissions - This one covers the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions that a company makes directly — for example while making products and delivering goods.

Scope 2 emissions - These are the emissions it makes indirectly – like when the electricity or energy it buys for heating and cooling buildings, is being produced on its behalf.

Scope 3 emissions - These are the emissions associated, not with the company itself, but that the organisation is indirectly responsible for, up and down its value chain. For example, from buying products from its suppliers, and from its products when customers use them.

Scope 2 is probably the easiest to quantify and to adjust – you can change energy supplier to a renewables company, you can get upgrade the insulation in your building etc. Scope 1 is harder as that might involve major upgrades to manufacturing equipment or a new process created around green chemistry routes and there could be a need for re-certifying with regulators.

Scope 3 is the most challenging. It requires you to understand the full Lifecycle Analysis of your product or process and have full traceability of where your product has come from and the processes it has undergone. AND to look to the future of what will happen to it once it has left your control.

Understanding all this is vital for your business. Look to the future, observe that many large consumers like the NHS and governments are moving to require full understanding of Scope 1, 2 and eventually 3 information from all suppliers. Grant bodies in the UK and at EU Level are also taking all this with the utmost seriousness. Explaining how your company aligns with the 17 UN SDG (UN Sustainability Goals) is already part of grant applications, and a waffly answer about “working towards” imprecise measurables is not going to score as highly as applications with a clear plan, targets and achievements.

SSC would encourage all businesses to push themselves further than the Net Zero area and balancing the environmental impacts against profitability. We would ask you to challenge yourselves and your businesses to go further, faster towards real sustainability not greenwashing for PR purposes.

We believe it is to your advantage to take the foot off the profitability pedal and to think about what other values and growth indicators your company identifies with. What could you do for the benefit of your business if you didn’t have to beat last years profits? How would you invest that excess cash? In your team? In your community? In your products and services?

We believe that by moving faster to true sustainability you are positioning your company strongly for the future, being seen in the market as an ethical business that values its employees and its customers, that cares about the health and wellbeing of the businesses in its value and supply chain.

Change is coming, you can get ahead of the curve.

Let us know if we can help adjust your strategy and plans.

info@strategicscientific.com

Author: Dr Cait Murray-Green, CEO, Strategic Scientific Consulting

SSC becomes Scottish EDGE Partner

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 11:55:27 GMT

Take the opportunity to give back when you can

Creating communities and clusters of skills is really important in small nations and in niche industries.

Scottish EDGE ( https://www.scottishedge.com/ ) is an amazing invention that really does manage to bring the Scottish entrepreneur an innovation community together. The competition is supportive but intense, they really want to give all companies who apply a chance to shine and to win. For the winners the kudos alone of the being selected after quite an arduous set of due diligence tests is worth it and the money can be life changing.

I’m lucky – I have been an EDGE winner. The money provided was instrumental to the companies’ development and allowed them to springboard forwards. I have also been an EDGE assessor, privileged to see the quality and range of applications made.

Now it is time to give back. SSC has become an EDGE partner, with a special offer for EDGE Alumni to help other companies move forwards with their funding plans, with forming strategy, with upskilling their team around confidence in communications.

The early stages of building a company are hard. Getting the right support when you need it can feel like throwing darts blindfold, but working with experts who have done what you are doing, who really can feel your pain (and have the scars to prove it) can make all the difference.

Drop us an email and find out where SSC can help. Info@strategicscientific.com

Dr Cait Murray Green

CEO, SSC

How to be Truly Maximising your Sustainable Development Credentials

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 14:02:02 GMT

How to be Truly Maximising your Sustainable Development Credentials

When Business talks about Sustainability and being sustainable what do they mean? The economic aspects of creating a business model that will be successful for the future is pretty much understood by all, but what about the other aspects – the impacts on the environment and on people?

Sustainability is really about bringing together the three aspects Economic, Social and Environmental, (often referred to as the three pillars) with equal importance and implementing them into how business interacts with the world and its resources.

Sometimes businesses which are highly technical can find it difficult to relate their ambitions and practices into a world which needs them to be more considerate. They can feel disengaged as they are so embedded in the market needs of a capital led industry and surrounded in urban locations long since selected for rapid air-links and motorway links to suppliers and customers. However, the reality is that the need to embrace change across all business is of urgency no matter the market you are in or want to get into – and it is possible to achieve at a fundamental level without the need for greenwashing!

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the outcome document "The Future We Want" in which they decided, to launch a process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to establish the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 SDGs was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September 2015.

With the post-Covid Build Back Better Sustainable Innovation Fund in the UK and the NGEU largest ever funding budget from the EU there are many opportunities for companies with Innovation ideas to be able to obtain some grant support. Sustainable Development isn’t just a buzzword, it is rapidly becoming a deeply embedded set of criteria that all innovation must embrace and align with in or fail to get public sector support.

From the research that SSC has done it appears that companies fall into mainly two categories.

The first is the group of companies that feel their business cannot fit into the criteria and that the goals really don’t apply to their ultra-technical market. They tend to make some effort around Gender Equality and skip rapidly over the list without any real engagement with the meaning of what is being asked across the other 16.

The second are companies that are aligned with the BioEconomy, with getting a balance with the Three Pillars of society, environment and economics, and very naturally are doing what the UN has challenged them with.

The first group tend to miss out positives about their businesses which could help them bring SD into their working practice without much effort, and therefore more easily score more thoroughly on the Sustainable Development section of any application forms.

The second group tend to miss out positives about their businesses which they are failing to headline and include in their applications.

Here is our guide to what you can do to make your company more clearly and visibly aligned with the 17 Goals

Grant Applications – Creating Maximum Leverage for Growth

Fri, 05 May 2023 11:21:13 GMT

Grant Application forms are a black art to some people. A world of bureaucracy, frustrating and time consuming with sometimes little return for the effort put in.

However, grant money is a great way to support micro and small companies get through to “adulthood” and once you get into the rhythm of what is needed it can become easier and more successful.

The first thing to do is to understand where you actually want your company to grow and develop over the next 3 years or so. Then identify what activities that are already in your plan can be naturally shaped into projects that have the potential for grant funding. If you are stretching the definitions to make it fit, then it is unlikely to be successful.

Grants are there to support

increased revenues, especially export revenues
new job roles and to safeguard existing employees
bring in additional revenues to government through business rates
innovation and the creation of new IP.

And increasingly to allow companies to transition to Net Zero, Zero Waste, Circular Economy and to meet Sustainable Development goals.

They do this through part-support of projects that enable expansion of premises, access to new equipment, support of staff wages whilst innovation for new products takes place and investigations of new market sectors and relationship /network building.

Don’t forget the need to make short videos and create pitch decks – those presentation skills are increasingly part of the initial assessment. Communication is KEY for success.

The forms require you to set out the vision for your company, to justify why the grant is needed and to check that you have the finance to make the project happen. After all, they need to risk assess the situation themselves whilst also being mindful that they are there to support business when investors won’t do it alone or at all.

SSC have worked in the grant sector in various ways. Members of our team have at times been part of local development agencies like Scottish Enterprise supporting companies through the grant applications process. We have colleagues that work as assessors for grants at multiple levels including EU EIC Innovation grants. We have also been at the coalface creating applications from scratch for various agencies and even for business competitions and had solid levels of success across the whole grant spectrum from R2B grants from Business Finland to SMART innovation grants in Scotland/UK.

These days, we are very much in the business of sharing that knowledge with others!

First Published: 1 Dec 2021

Seeds of Entrepreneurship

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:58:33 GMT

Seeds of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a strange beast.

It is a rite of passage for some people, an experience never to be undertaken twice. For others it can be a lifelong addiction. It is definitely not for everyone!

Entrepreneurs are also a bit out of the ordinary themselves, but there is not a set personality type that makes for success or failure. There are many people who make creating a business look easy. They might be inspirational at explaining their complex ideas and getting others to believe that it is going to be possible. They might be doggedly determined to keep trying, perhaps quietly in their basement, until they manage to get the correct formula for success.

One thing that we have noticed at SSC as a team, is that when we participate in, or coach on, entrepreneur/commercialisation courses there are often a majority of “out of towners” signed up.

There is something in the personal challenge of moving for university or employment, away from your home, or going to another country and learning to live around another culture (and often language) that feeds an entrepreneur spirit.

Perhaps relocation gives people the confidence to try new things, perhaps the relocation gives people a new set of vocabulary and cultural references to be able to communicate their thoughts better. Perhaps we just see the world in a different light and can spot new ways to do things, ways that would be normal back home, but in this new environment bring innovation and improvements.

Whatever the cause, it does seem to be a truth that holds across all geographies that SSC has been lucky enough to work in.

It’s another tangible benefit of immigration and to be celebrated!

First Published Sept 2020

Watch One, Do One, Teach One

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 11:43:59 GMT

The world of a business expert at SSC is a strange one.

We are constantly learning new things, trying to understand the cutting-edge of technology in many market areas, trying to make contacts with all sorts of vibrant and interesting people and companies to be able to make connections. We are always watching.

We are also not afraid to roll-up our sleeves and provide practical support where it is needed. Sometimes it is the right thing to do to be immersed in a company for the length of a project and share knowledge from the inside not just through a report or presentation.

Recently SSC in Scotland has been working with two young companies who are wanting to take their ideas and introduce them to the world. They ideally want to be able to obtain grant and investment funding to allow them to take their prototypes and develop them into successful products and to grow their companies around that, enabling employment and revenue.

It is a pleasure and a privilege to see their progress and the changes they are making.

For us, it is also the proof of our own skills as that "Teach One" element of mentoring is an art. I think the mark of a true expert is in being able to understand the influence of communication within business enough to be able to encourage and guide others to embrace those skills and use them to move their own businesses forwards.

It might be a strange world at times, but it is hugely rewarding to be trusted with such a depth and quality of new technologies as they make their journey forward to market and commercial success.

1st Published 14 July 2020

Grant Applications – an Assessors Point of View

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 11:52:05 GMT

Applying for grant funding is highly competitive and an application requires time and effort to get it right. Success relies heavily on the views of the assessors so giving some thought to what they are looking for can help to get the right outcome.

It scarcely needs saying but before embarking on writing a funding application it is crucial that you select the right scheme or competition. It doesn’t matter how excellent your idea and proposal is if it does not align with the funding scope. It will simply get rejected by the assessors. So spend some time reading the guidance and don’t forget to make full use of any FAQ/helpdesk service provided.

It’s important to remember that assessors are unlikely to be experts in your specific market or technology so don’t leave anything to guesswork and make sure you reference the terms used in the scheme’s guidance and try to avoid acronyms and highly technical language. Above all, keep it concise and simple as they will have a lot of applications to trawl through!

Assuming you have identified the right scheme for your proposal, the next step is to think through the best way to present your case for support. Remember the importance of a good first impression - those first few sentences are critical, so you need to make them interesting and exciting to the assessor to create positive momentum for the rest of the application.

The heart of any business case must focus on how you will make money from the market opportunity identified. There is an increasing expectation with most schemes to show detailed market research and to have established initial contacts with potential customers. A good tip therefore is to avoid starting by trying to explain how great your idea is or how clever the technology is, but to describe the market need you are targeting and how it will be addressed by your proposal.

The assessor is looking to see whether you understand the potential market for your proposal. The best applications use current market data references and describe the wider picture before focusing on the market share expected for the specific idea. The dynamics of the market are also important: Is it growing? How fast? What trends affect it? What is the competition? What are the barriers to entry? The assessor will want to understand your strategy to access the market to see if this is realistic. If you cannot explain how your product will be made, who will retail it and your sales or service model you may struggle. You should be upfront about any legislation or regulatory issues, current or forthcoming, that may affect your ability to access a market. Don’t claim too much – the assessor knows what is realistic. A badly defined market opportunity can come undone at this point.

People don’t generally buy technology but rather what technology does for them, so even the most exciting idea or cutting-edge technology will fail if potential customers see no benefit or are not able to use it effectively. The assessor will be keen to understand who your target customers or end users are, whether your product or service meets their aspirations and whether it is easy to adopt. Applications can often fall down by not demonstrating that they have engaged with likely customers or manufacturers. Remember that the route to market and exploitation are as important as the product/service being developed. The assessor wants to understand if the applicant has the skills, experience, resources and facilities to carry out the project AND to exploit the results themselves.

For most grant schemes, you are seeking public funds for your project, so the assessor will want to see if the investment of public funds is value for money. You will need to explain why you can’t afford it and then show why commercial finance isn’t available. The kind of answer that assessors are looking for here usually relates to risk: i.e. it is too risky for commercial investors hence grant funding could help to get through this stage of development or there is a need to reduce the time to market in order to get there ahead of competitors.

Applications that do well don’t just state the commercial benefits of the idea but emphasise how others could benefit including any project partners and stakeholders outside the project. Given that grants will usually involve public funds, other categories should include the economic, social and environmental benefits. It is important to demonstrate that the project will be helping more than just the applicant and to explain how this can be achieved by your business strategy. Don’t ignore the potential negative impacts. These should be identified and mitigation described because if the assessor judges that your project is potentially damaging, and you haven’t considered this, it will be taken negatively.

Providing a credible delivery plan is crucial. The assessor wants to understand the technical approach but while they will generally be knowledgeable in your sector, you should not assume they will be familiar with all the technical aspects. Avoid jargon and acronyms and break down the project into key work packages and milestones. Essentially, preparing the delivery plan shouldn’t be any different to your own project plans. The assessor is looking to see if the plan is realistic, whether there is sufficient resource (and where it is coming from) and that there is good management in place. They will have considerable project management experience so make sure these aspects are clear and it all adds up!

Lastly, it is important to undertake a complete risk assessment across all the areas listed in guidelines and describe the mitigation you will follow to minimize and control the risk for each. Remember risk is not a bad thing and is often integral to any innovation. The natural instinct is to play down the risk in order to convince the assessors that it will succeed and therefore must be supported. However, low risk ratings could well convince the assessor that this does not need funding (why would you need funds to help de-risk a project if these are so low) and also raise questions in the assessor’s mind about whether the applicant understands the risks being taken. Of course, there are both “good” and “bad” risks. A good “risk” might be that you are not sure if the innovation will work and your mitigation is to have a great team and the right resources. “Bad” risks would include poor management, lack of required skills or experience, poorly defined route to market etc.

Original Published: 7 Jan 2022

TAM SAM and SOM of Women in Business

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:02:39 GMT

I didn’t write anything myself about International Women’s Day. I was at a great event, took part in a very interesting panel discussion for Lanarkshire Councils around Technology businesses and didn’t really get a chance for reflection at the time.

Women are held back in terms of business success. We are time poor as we are more likely to have caring duties for children or elderly relatives. Also, we still have to close the gender gap and often we don’t have the same level of exposure to fund raising and to grant writing so access to finance to get any business up and running can be hard.

What got me thinking was I wonder how much we ourselves also hold back? Women are more deferential in nature, we are more apologetic and generally we are less confident than our male counterparts. We don’t like to parade our successes and our achievements and we often set the bar for celebration of “good enough” at the “perfection” level.

It occurred to me that the marketing concepts of TAM, SAM and SOM are very applicable here. Women often limit themselves to what they feel confident about – markets, knowledge, skills, network – the confidence barrier affects our performance on all those areas.

In general we are more skilled than we believe, or accept about ourselves. Our SAM is actually much wider. We often forget about our project management skills from running a household or our negotiations and diplomatic skills gained from persuading toddlers to do what you need them to do. All those transferrable skills make for really good business women.

And then there is what we could be capable of. The TAM. We tend to forget about the opportunities of upskilling, the experience we get from overcoming each and every challenge that comes our way.

As long as you are working on a business concept that you are passionate about, that means as much as family to you, then you WILL find a way to make it happen. We should focus more on the TAM and believe in the possibility that each and every one of us as business women, leaders or team worker has to offer.

Identify Your Opportunity and Go for It

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:05:29 GMT

Market Research with SSC

There is an art to market research which greatly appeals to the SSC team.

Taking a blank sheet and filling it with the latest knowledge on the status of a market sector and analysing the available information on the market drivers and trends is very satisfying. Being able to match up opportunities with clients plans for technical achievements and provide guidance to which sectors are the most accessible enables us to look at risks and likelihoods of success through the lens of amazing technologies and opens our minds to new possibilities and visions of the future.

Market research has been central to SSC business since we started up.

We have worked with ideas from life sciences – new therapeutics, new markets for older treatments, medical devices and also enabling technologies in diagnostics. These fit well with both Ansku’s and Cait’s strong background in Chemistry and time in the Pharma/Biotech industries.

We have also worked on environmental projects sometimes where they overlap with chemical/biological areas such as algae/macroalgae but we have also taken on projects as wide ranging from environmentally sustainable telecommunications masts to assessing markets for new technology for desalination and energy storage technology.

Recently, we have been expanding our reach and gotten involved in projects around pivoting businesses during Covid and post-Brexit. This is enabling us to bring our deep understanding of Sustainable Development into play and providing insight into how businesses can make the most of all the economic, social and environmental viable skills, actions and ethos that they have to help prevent us going back entirely to “normal”. It is also allowing us to dust off our digital marketing skills and engage with B2C clients that have a closer relationship with their end-user/customer base.

Whatever the market sector, SSC can help to create suitable market research that points you to the next steps and which is suitable for inclusion in business plans, grant applications and business competition entries.

First Published Dec 2021

Innovation Applications and Gender Balance Planning

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:03:05 GMT

Innovation Applications and Gender Balance Planning

One of the essential parts of a grant application today is a section on the Team and that includes looking at the skills and the gender balance of the organisation as it is at the moment, and planning for how that could become 50:50 Male to Female. That can be a challenge especially for companies with a strong science or engineering focus where the gender balance in degree courses is still dominated by males.

With my assessor hat on I am frequently reading detailed, well prepared applications for funding and it is interesting to see what happens when this area is reached.

Approaches include statements like:

“We will make our interviews and application process more female friendly by using more inclusive language.”

“We will employ more women in marketing and other non-technical areas to achieve balance”

But is that a real solution? Does it really reflect an understanding of what the causes of the gender imbalance are?

We know that women are more frequently the carers for young children or elderly parents, we know that childcare costs are often more than a part-time scientific-role salary and we know that often returning to work after having kids can really be a challenge in terms of promotion.

I would prefer to see companies acknowledge these issues in their application and provide some thought-through solutions to explain why they are going to be a better employer for ALL their staff.

How about creating policies which address these issues at source? We are talking about plans for companies that have ambition to be High Growth, to often have £100m or above turnover, so it would be inspiring to see them come up with some real solutions to well-known problems!

Why not include a creche/nursery on site for all staff. Being near their children, and having those costs subsidised by your employer can make a huge difference in deciding where you are going to accept a job.

What about ensuring that promotions and bonuses are decided on performance-related metrics that take account of flexible or part-time working arrangements and are normalised against the number of hours per week you are available to your employer. This simple change would make a vast difference to how part-time staff are valued and how promotions are decided – and give greater visibility to the “extra” that part-timers often put in for free.

There are many ways of making STEM companies attractive to female workers at all levels. It just takes a little bit of inspiration and thinking outside of the box.

Dr Cait Murray-Green
CEO
Strategic Scientific Consulting

A Review of Twenty-Two!

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 19:03:05 GMT

A Review of Twenty-Two!

Yet again the end of the year has crept up on us and it feels like a surprise that it is already the holiday season.

We hope that all our innovation community have a relaxing and enjoyable break and are able to come back to our work environments recharged with enthusiasm in January.

2022 has been interesting for SSC.

We have enjoyed being back in person for meetings and events, and realised just how we missed that aspect, especially for our courses in Dundee and Oulu. The world has adapted well to on-line interactions, but it doesn’t give the full picture and we are working hard at including improvements for hybrid living into the course materials, so we all improve our communication skills no matter what the situation.

We have enjoyed seeing success for our grant applicants – especially EcoCascade who have managed to get enough start-up funding for equipment and staffing to be operational in time for the Spring harvest of seaweed. The world of grant funding for innovation is becoming even more competitive and the support of “soft money” funding even more important in the growth story of companies providing an extra opportunity for due diligence into the idea and business concepts at early stages. It’s definitely worth the pain of the paperwork to achieve the benefits of the success.

It has also been inspirational to work with many emerging technologies and seeing so many embrace the climate emergency and provide sustainable development solutions to some of the biggest technical challenges we face.

As ever we are grateful for the excellent variety of the projects that our clients have brought to us and look forward to extending those relationships and making new ones in the year to come.

Kiitos paljon

Cait, Tony, Emily, Andrew ja Ansku

Mentoring – Coaching – Sparring

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 19:03:05 GMT

One of the most rewarding aspects of being part of SSC is being able to work with upcoming researchers and companies. Being asked to get involved to help shape strategy is a pleasure as well as vital in a company journey.

Mentoring – Coaching – Sparring

What does mentoring, coaching, and sparring mean and my experiences of these roles.

A Mentor is a person with experience acquired in one or various fields and he/she shares with mentees (someone with less experience) his/her knowledge to help mentees develop their skills, achieve their goals, and enrich their professional journey.

A Coach is a person who provides guidance to coachees on their goals and helps them reach their full potential. For instance, when topics are more personal in nature, a business coach can make the senior leader aware of their characteristics and how they can use them to achieve their personal growth goals and realize their business objectives.

A Sparring partner focus is not on the individual’s personal goals but to think along with a leader in the business’s strategic context. A sparring partner has usually a broad business experience and provides an external perspective. Together with a sparring partner, the leader can validate, reflect, or brainstorm on challenges, like thinking of strategies to overcome the possible challenges.

I have an honour to be involved in all these roles:

I am a Mentor of Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship (NOME) that is an elite Nordic Mentor Network of handpicked mentors and promising life science projects & start-ups. The vision of NOME is to develop and implement a best-in- class mentoring initiative that will propel the Nordic countries into one of the leading life science regions to commercialize high growth life science start-ups.

I am also a Mentor of SparkFinland, a program that is designed to increase the maturity of academic and clinical discoveries towards practical and value creating solutions in the health tech and life science space.

I am a Coach at SSC, where I am e.g. providing with my colleagues training on Presentations Skills, Business Skills, Productization Skills etc.

I am a Sparring partner at KasvuOpen, that provides sparring programs for entrepreneurs, and I have been sparring each year since 2018 many companies from different fields, for example, Health and Wellbeing, SmartCity, Bio- and Circular Economy, Energy, Digital Health etc.

I have enjoyed each role and often the roles mix along the processes. Mentoring, coaching, and sparring are great ways to keep oneself updated with recent technology developments, and network with new people, and companies. Certainly, it is always delighted to be able to share own experience and expertise to help others and it is a process which I also learn from and get to expand my own skills too!

A Welcome Return to Direct Learning!

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 19:47:09 GMT

Gosh, it was good to be back …….

SSC have been running courses for Oulu University in Finland for many years now. It’s a wonderful environment for learning in a beautifu l location so it’s always been a great privilege to be invited.

We have often provided a course called “Productising Your Expertise”, which has proved very popular for students coming to the end of their degree. It helps them productise an idea for industry, attain investment or prepare for the job market. However, with the global Covid pandemic, we’ve had to convert the course to an online version. That, in itself, turned out to be fun and encouraged SSC to embrace distance learning, but in truth the course is a very personal experience and always intended to be a face-to-face experience.

So last week, we found ourselves back in Oulu teaching onsite again to a group of very talented students!

Normally a 2 day visit, this time we were there for a whole week. The University had also asked us to run our latest course, “Presentation Skills” to a large audience of students seeking to establish or improve their ability to conduct a great presentation. This proved to be a great addition to the SSC portfolio of learning packages and was very well received by our audience. The course teaches students how to extract key points about a project or subject, create an appropriate presentation and deliver it effectively in different styles. In addition to more traditional pitching approaches, our class was also taught how to run live online versions of their presentations, with all the complexities that can involve. And we all had a lot of fun while doing it!

So; good to be back ……………… and looking forward to doing it all again very soon indeed!

Talk to us about your training needs --- send an email to info@strategicscientific.com

Sustainable Development Boost!

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 20:42:21 GMT

SSC are proud to announce that our CEO, Dr Ca it Murray-Green has successfully completed her MSc in Sustainable Rural Development.

Cait has been immersed in learning for the past 30 months formalising and deepening her understanding of how to create businesses which are good for the environment and communities and addressing the challenges of rural locations. This has led her to be involved in the creation of a new Community Interest Company EcoCascade who will be providing support and primary processing facilities for the emerging seaweed industry in Scotland.

www.eco-cascade.com

SSC have for a long time embraced the collision between technology and the environment and this achievement underlines our commitment to providing the best practice and understanding for our clients as we support them in growing their businesses from any sector in these challenging times.

#innovation #sustainabledevelopment #ruraleconomy #climatechange #localism

Working with SSC for Grant Applications

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:36:34 GMT

E ver wondered what it is like to work with the SSC team on a grant application?

Here's the story of what happened with East Coast Cured, the Scottish Charcuterie Company from Edinburgh in their Founder, Susie Anderson's own words

" In late summer of 2021 I was made aware of a large Scottish Government grant that would be opening 'soon' that would benefit the growth of our Scottish cured meat business significantly. As is typical for me I was convinced I could embark on this process alone, however having set aside some time to review the application properly I went into panic mode and contacted as many people as possible to see whether they could recommend someone experienced to support me through the process.

That's where Strategic Scientific Consulting (SSC) came in (courtesy of a mutual contact - Kevin Walls at Scottish EDGE). Despite SSC not having experience in our specific market sector, it became very clear from our first meeting that they were exactly who we needed to be working with. SSC has a huge amount of experience in writing grant applications and it was incredibly helpful having objective eyes on the application but also on the business as a whole.

The grant window was supposed to open in December 2021 so initially we thought our relationship with SSC would be very intense and short lived. The grant window didn't open until May 2022 so we had almost 6 months to refine the grant application as well as properly shape our project and 3-year business plan.

Cait and team have been excellent throughout the process and we genuinely couldn't have done it without them. From the very first meeting they were professional, communicated clearly and timely and explained things in a way that made sense to us and our business. Cait was at the end of the phone when required and gave me the pushes and pep-talks I needed at just the right time. Not only do I think we've submitted an incredibly strong grant application but we have a solid 3 year business plan that SSC has helped to shape too. We're glad we ended up having the 6 months working with SSC as our project proposal is a whole lot stronger than it would have been back in December 2021.

We're already looking forward to working with SSC again on future applications! "