Investment in City Economic Development
11/02/25
Investment designed to drive forward economic development in Dundee is set to be discussed by councillors.
Funding from external sources would be used to support ongoing initiatives like employment programmes, while it could also assist commercial companies spinning out from biomedical research.
A report to be considered on Monday (Feb 17) shows that £2.44 million of funding has been awarded to Dundee City Council from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) for 2025-26.
Councillors will hear that over the last three years, the council has used UKSPF to support the delivery of key economic development interventions.
These include Discover Work, the Dundee Partnership’s employability programme, and local business support through Business Gateway.
To ensure that these services can continue to deliver to clients without interruption, and that staff are retained, it is necessary to confirm the ongoing funding for these projects at the earliest opportunity.
Delivery models including Challenge Funds, partnership approaches, procured services and regionally focused initiatives would remain the same as previous years.
Meanwhile, a separate report recommends the use of legacy funding from the Business Loans Scotland scheme to bolster the city’s life sciences sector.
Opening of the Dundee Life Sciences Innovation Hub in 2025 creates an imperative to maximise the pipeline of spinout companies and to remove barriers to translating innovative research into commercial opportunity and job creation.
Councillors are being asked to give the go-ahead to the reinvestment of the £137,000 legacy funding into a Proof of Concept (POC) Fund Programme in partnership with University of Dundee, with the aim of catalysing life science and healthcare sector spinout companies.
They will hear that the pilot phase of the POC scheme has been funded in 2024/2025 by £100,000 from Dundee’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund allocation matched in kind by Dundee University.
Both reports will be considered by the Fair Work, Economic Growth and Infrastructure Committee at its next meeting.
Committee convener Councillor Steven Rome said: “We are determined to improve the economy of Dundee through a range of measures with our partners and these two reports show the efforts we are making.
“UKSPF has enabled us to deliver key employability programmes, and city partners are focusing on key issues such as increasing the number of our young people in positive destinations.
“This is a crucial initiative for the future of our city.
“We also want to see academic innovation translated into commercial success, and the Proof of Concept programme will help fledgling companies to find their way.”
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