CivTech Round 11

Overview

CivTech Round 11 is offering £5.5 million in contract opportunities to solve public sector challenges using innovative technologies and approaches. It seeks True Innovation — not only solving tough problems but enabling scalable, impactful solutions. This round continues CivTech’s mission to deliver strong economic impact and support high-potential businesses.

Project scope

Applicants are invited to respond to a set of challenge-led opportunities sourced from public sector organisations. Each challenge addresses a real-world issue faced by a public body and aims to deliver a practical, scalable solution through collaboration between innovators and challenge sponsors.

Participants will progress through a structured process — from proposal to prototype — with the potential to develop a long-term relationship with the sponsoring organisation and wider public sector.

Key themes and topics

CivTech Round 11 features eight distinct public sector Challenges, each offering innovators the opportunity to deliver meaningful impact across sectors:

• Sustainable marine ecosystems

• Challenge 11.1: Develop non-invasive monitoring technology to assess and manage the ecological impact of marine pen fish farms on sensitive habitats like maerl beds and rocky seabeds—providing data robust enough for regulation and long-term environmental protection

• Gaelic language and cultural technology

• Challenge 11.2: Address the sparseness of available data and unlock the economic and cultural potential of the Gaelic language through innovative technological approaches

• Environmental and social impact of litter

• Challenge 11.3: Identify technology-driven solutions to mitigate litter’s environmental and community impact in the Arrochar region

• Health and wellbeing – musculoskeletal conditions

• Challenge 11.4: Create assistive or enabling technologies to support people with long-term conditions—starting with musculoskeletal issues—to engage more fully in work and everyday life

• Government decision-making insights

• Challenge 11.5: Innovate tools that help public sector bodies understand and model the potential impact of governmental decisions prior to implementation

• Reducing teacher workload

• Challenge 11.6: Design solutions to streamline administrative burdens for educators—helping to free up time for lesson planning, feedback, reporting and more

• Amplifying the impact of festivals

• Challenge 11.7: Explore tech-enabled ways to increase the cultural, social and economic benefits of Scotland’s festival sector for communities, audiences and the culture industry

• Safe and transparent robotics adoption

• Challenge 11.8: Create frameworks, tools or systems to ensure the safe, trusted and transparent deployment of robotics in public services

Project duration

The CivTech Round 11 programme unfolds in multiple stages:

• Challenge call: 22 July – 2 September 2025
• Exploration Stage: 3 – 21 November 2025
• Accelerator Stage: 19 January – 1 May 2026
• Pre-Commercial Stage: Begins 6 May 2026 onwards
• Demo Day: Date TBC (immediately after the Accelerator)

Award value

The total contract funding available across all challenges is £5.5 million.

Typically, each Challenge will fund one solution through to the Accelerator, with individual contract values varying by Challenge (specific values published per Challenge on Public Contracts Scotland).

Funding rates

Funding is provided in the form of pre-commercial procurement contracts, not grants. Payments are made to successful suppliers as they meet deliverables through each stage:

• Exploration Stage support
• Accelerator Stage contract
• Potential extension in the Pre-Commercial Stage

This model is designed to reduce barriers to entry and provide financial stability while teams develop their innovations.

Eligibility criteria

CivTech welcomes applications from:

• Individuals and teams
• Pre-startups and startups
• Early-stage and established SMEs
• Large companies

No prior technical or academic credentials are required — just a strong idea, the motivation to build it into a viable solution, and the ambition to scale.