New industry partnership aims to improve fairness in startup funding
A pioneering Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School and Scottish EDGE, the UK’s largest funding competition for startups, is set to transform how investment decisions are made in high-stakes funding panels.
Led by Dr Andrew Maclaren, the project aims to understand more deeply how panels make funding decisions. Scottish EDGE, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting Scottish entrepreneurs, is seeking to expand its competition model internationally, with ambitions to expand into markets such as Dubai and Malaysia.
“This project is about more than just making good funding decisions—it’s about fairness, transparency, and consistency,” said Dr Maclaren. “We want to understand how panels can be supported to make optimal decisions—not through individual expertise alone, but through structured systems that ensure all candidates are treated equitably.”
The 18-month initiative, funded by Innovate UK, will embed a full-time associate within Scottish EDGE and buy out time for Dr Maclaren to work directly with the organisation. The research will explore the group dynamics of judging panels, the training and onboarding of panellists, and the broader systems that support effective decision-making.
“Scottish EDGE’s willingness to ‘open the black box’ of their judging process is a testament to their commitment to responsible business practices,” Maclaren added. “In a landscape where many high-stakes funding decisions happen behind closed doors, this level of transparency is rare and incredibly valuable.”
The partnership also builds on an established relationship between Heriot-Watt and Scottish EDGE, which has supported numerous Heriot-Watt-affiliated entrepreneurs in recent years. The collaboration highlights the School’s continued investment in practical, impact-led research and its wider commitment to ethical entrepreneurship.
In line with both partners’ social missions, the project is expected to have implications far beyond Scottish EDGE. It could help shape more inclusive, responsible funding frameworks across government, academia, and industry—wherever decisions are made in closed settings with limited accountability.
“Ultimately,” said Maclaren, “our hope is that this work helps create a more thoughtful, transparent model for entrepreneurial support both in Scotland and around the world.”