Enterprising and innovative firms are wanted

Forward-thinking companies who are showing innovative thinking are being sought.

The 2019 Scottish Rural Awards are searching for Scottish firms to enter the Rural Enterprise and Innovation category, which is designed to recognise enterprise and entrepreneurship throughout rural Scotland, wherever it may lie.

The Rural Enterprise and Innovation category is open to all individuals, small businesses and larger businesses operating in a rural environment.

Nominees must have found success in developing an existing business or practice, successfully reinventing, reinterpreting or adapting an existing business or practice, or applying unique, innovative methods to an existing business or practice.

The judges will look for ways in which the nominee stands out from the crowd and will ask the following questions: Has the enterprise utilised innovative practices to save something that may otherwise have been lost, or saved something from disappearing from the rural map? Is the business proactive in its operations? How has the nominee used new technology to further their business? Would winning this award reward a truly special enterprise and tell a positive story about rural life?

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At the 2018 awards, biotechnology company Xanthella, based in Oban, were overall winners in the Rural Enterprise and Innovation category, with judges praising their exciting work to create renewable electricity from algae.

South Queensferry-based IceRobotics landed runner-up spot. IceRobotics is the world’s leading developer and provider of data collection and analysis products for monitoring dairy cow behaviour.

MacRebur Ltd were highly commended in the category. MacRebur was co-founded by three friends: Gordon Reid, Toby McCartney and Nick Burnett in early 2016 who were sick of potholed roads in Dumfriesshire. Inspired by an Indian method of melting plastic into craters to fill and seal them, they developed a patent-pending pellet from plastic which would otherwise end up in landfill.

Find out more by clicking HERE.