Heads, Kelvingrove Art Museum

Why Scotland

Glasgow's Thriving Sectors

Glasgow is Scotland's largest city and was once the beating heart of the industrial revolution, producing the steel and building the ships that carried ideas and goods around the world.

Modern day Glasgow is a city reborn. Home to several Scottish Innovation Centres and 4 Universities, Glasgow is a city which thrives on learning and innovation. A UNESCO world city of music, a hub for life science and pharmaceutical research, a high-tech enclave with specialities in energy, engineering, photonics and satellites a city of commerce, and as ever, a city of big ideas and big personalities. As the locals say, People Make Glasgow.

Software and Digital Technology

Scotland is the UK's fastest growing digital economy outside London with Glasgow fast becoming a global digital technology hub. It is home to a thriving range of digital tech sectors including fin-tech, e-commerce, enterprise software and space technology. Scotland's first city Innovation District will be located in Glasgow's city centre, bringing business, academia and government together to enhance its health, life sciences and engineering sectors using digital technology. The Digital Media Industries are a priority sector for Glasgow, from broadcasting to publishing, music, games and learning technologies. Pacific Quay - Glasgow's Digital Media Quarter - is home to BBC Scotland, the most advanced broadcasting centre in Europe, and Film City Glasgow.

Who's in Glasgow's Tech Tent?

  • Scotland's dedicated data innovation centre, at the heart of Scotland's rapidly expanding data ecosystem: The Data Lab
  • The Urban Big Data Centre, a UK wide resource for researchers to use data science to tackle urban challenges.
  • CENSIS, the centre of excellence for sensing and imaging systems (SIS) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is the industry-led innovation centre that assists businesses and organisations to innovate and overcome technology barriers.
  • JP Morgan's European Technology Centre employs more than 1,500 highly skilled technologists, developing complex software and technology services for use by JP Morgan across the globe.
  • European HQ for Encompass Corporation, the Australian fintech developer, has located its fast-growing European HQ in Glasgow.
  • European HQ for AcuSoft, in 2018 the US software company opened their first European office in Glasgow.

Creative

In 1990 Glasgow was named European City of Culture, propelling the city into the global spotlight. In 2019 Glasgow was named the UK's top city for culture and creativity by the European Commission. Today, Glasgow continues to blaze an internationally acclaimed trail in contemporary art, design and music while safeguarding its rich architectural heritage, world-class civic art collection and as home to many of Scotland's national performing arts companies. A UNESCO City of Music, Glasgow hosts more than 130 live performances every week. Glasgow's legendary music scene stretches across the whole spectrum from urban to hip-hop, indie to Celtic, and classical too. A creative city, bursting with ideas.

Glasgow's Creative Talents:

Energy

Glasgow has ambitions to be one of Europe's most sustainable cities and a world leading centre for sustainable policy, innovation and action. With world-class academic and research infrastructure, Glasgow offers a culture of innovation and is home to the UK's largest renewable electricity company, SSE, as well as a number of other organisations at the forefront of low carbon developments including the likes of SPR Iberdrola and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. The University of Strathclyde's Institute for Energy and Environment is one of the largest electrical power engineering and energy technology research groups in Europe. 

Glasgow's Energy Industry and Research Centres:

Medical and Life Sciences

Glasgow has been at the epicentre of medical innovation since the 18th century. The city's universities boast alumni such as Sir David Livingstone, Sir William Macewen who conducted the world's first bone graft and successful removal of a brain tumour, Lord John Boyd Orr who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in establishing the link between poverty, poor nutrition and health and the UK's first female medical professor, Dame Louise McIlroy. Today, Glasgow is home to the largest medical physics research division in the world, Europe's largest hospital and the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, the UK's most advanced NHS cancer centre. In 2017 the University of Glasgow officially opened its state-of-the-art Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) for precision medicine.

Glasgow's Medical and Life Sciences community:

Engineering and Technology

Glasgow was famously the second city of Empire, the industrial capital from which great ships and industries were built. Ever innovative and with an unmatched technological history, Glasgow has become a world leader in precision medicine, quantum technologies, photonics and advanced manufacturing. The city's universities have long been a hub for driving innovation in this sector. The University of Glasgow is home to the oldest School of Engineering in the UK, and the University of Strathclyde is recognised as one of the UK's leading technological universities. Glasgow now puts more satellites into space than any other city in Europe and is quietly establishing itself as Europe's leading city for space engineering. In todays world sectors are far more inter-connected, and Glasgow's pioneering work in engineering and technology merges with its work in data, healthcare, energy, renewables and life sciences.

Glasgow's technology and engineering pioneers include:

Marine

Glasgow is an international hub for shipbuilding and marine technology research and development. The University of Strathclyde's faculty of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering is a world-leading centre of marine technology. Strathclyde has made a major contribution to the safety of ships through its pioneering work in the stability of damaged ships and is currently researching a wide range of challenges from reducing carbon emissions from shipping to developing new types of floating wind turbines. The University of Glasgow has a wide range of expertise in the marine sciences.  From biodiversity and conservation to marine resources and services, as well as the management and sustainability of coastal, marine and mountain environments, and their rural communities.

Space

Scotland's space industry contributes more than £130 million to the economy and over the last two years, Glasgow has built more satellites than any other city in Europe. With a key cluster of high-tech companies and research centres in advanced manufacturing, photonics, nanomaterials and computing, Glasgow is making space accessible here in Scotland. Strathclyde University is home to one of Europe's largest space engineering research groups and is working with Glasgow City Council to help grow Scotland's first Innovation District.

Glasgow's Space explorers include:

Food and Drink

Glasgow boasts a diverse, innovative and constantly expanding food and drink scene. With independent bakers, beekeepers, distillers, brewers and coffee roasters, working with some of the most exciting chefs and restaurateurs in the country - Glasgow is packed full of talented people with a passion for good food and drink. From outstanding seafood and shellfish to unbeatable game and beef, Glasgow's location on Scotland's West Coast offers an abundant source of the best local produce in the world. Traditional dishes, regional specialities and local produce like haggis, shortbread, whisky and Cullen skink feature in many of the city's eateries offering a distinct flavour of Scotland.

Glasgow's Larder:

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