Scottish Government Debate: How Scotland’s Innovation Centre Programme is Driving Innovation in Scotland

S5M-02511 Shirley-Anne Somerville That the Parliament acknowledges the contribution that Scotland’s Innovation Centre Programme can make as a driver of innovation on some key sectors of the economy; welcomes the publication of the independent review of Scotland’s Innovation Centre Programme by Professor Graeme Reid, and recognises that the review’s recommendations set out a helpful course for the Scottish Government to consider during the next stage of the programme. S5M-02511.3 Dean Lockhart As an amendment to motion S5M-02511 in the name of Shirley Anne Somerville (How Scotland’s Innovation Centre Programme is Driving Innovation in Scotland), insert at end "; urges the Scottish Government to introduce clearer industry-defined success measures in order to assess the overall performance of innovation centres; encourages it to take further action to boost productivity levels in the Scottish economy through innovation, and notes with concern the latest available productivity figures, which show that Scotland currently ranks in the third quartile of OECD countries for productivity, despite the Scottish Government’s target for Scotland to rank in the top quartile by 2017." S5M-02511.1 Iain Gray As an amendment to motion S5M-02511 in the name of Shirley-Anne Somerville (How Scotland’s Innovation Centre Programme is Driving Innovation in Scotland), insert at end "; notes that Professor Reid called for a further review to be completed by June 2017, and considers that this review should report to the Parliament, which should include progress made on innovation centre objectives, including the generation of 5,000 jobs and the leverage of private sector funding into centre projects, and on improvements to the involvement of further education colleges in the programme, and that it should recommend whether new centres in other sectors are required."