From 2008 to 2010, Coller IP was appointed by the Intellectual Asset Centre in Glasgow and worked with companies operating in Scotland’s renewable energy sector to identify and realise value from their intangible assets.
Following an initial phase of support, twelve companies in the Highlands and Islands went on to take part in Project VIA (Valuing Intellectual Assets). The companies comprised a mix of specialist consultancies, providers of construction services, software developers, equipment suppliers and technology developers.
Project VIA comprised a dedicated programme of group work-shops and individual confidential consultations to identify, protect and build value from the intangible assets in each business.
As Coller IP mentored the companies through Project VIA, each company encountered a range of board room challenges: from the protection and management of IP, through the need to differentiate services and products, to improving relationships, marketing and tendering processes. The primary objective being to grow their business sustainably and increase turnover.
Amongst other achievements, the companies:
- Secured new funding in the form of research grants or venture capital investment with a combined value in excess of £2.5M;
- Increased regional employment as a result of increased sales, with up to eight new staff recruited by one company;
- Identified new products and services for which there was a market demand, as evidenced by securing early sales.
- Restructured the business in a manner that spun out 2 new companies.
This project has been shown to have generated a benefit of £697,793 to the Scottish Economy.
Click below for Case Studies summarising the progress of the companies:
ALIenergy
Aquatera
Atmos Consulting
AWS Ocean Energy
Chillwind
Currie Brothers
Green Space Live
HQC
Highland Wood Energy (HWE)
Research Relay
Synergie Scotland
Windserv
“I’ve been getting a great deal out of the programme, not least a much heightened awareness of the value of the complete IA portfolio within our business. This has been highlighted recently during our in-house strategy session where we took a more strategic view of our forward wealth creation as a result of inputs from VIA!”
Graham Bibby, Operations Director, AWS Ocean Energy
Click here for download of realising value from intangible assets