This Strategy is co-ordinated by Technology Ventures Scotland (TVS), however, in order to broaden the base of participants involved in commercialisation, and raise awareness of the issues surrounding it, the RSE organised a series of Commercialisation and Foresight Seminars.

The commercialisation seminars have addressed a number of issues involved in taking a technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. These seminars have covered topics such as: venture capital and early stage funding; environmental opportunities; intellectual property; entrepreneurship; technology incubators; technology transfer in the USA; and the Cambridge phenomenon. In 2001, the RSE supported by TVS and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC), organised a series of Science Base Research and Commercialisation workshops, held in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness. These identified and encouraged the adoption of best practice with regard to commercialisation within the Scottish science base.

The RSE’s Foresight Seminars bring together the Scottish science base, Scottish industry, and senior research executives from national Foresight Panels and the Scottish Executive. The seminars describe evolving market and technology trends in industries or sectors together with an overview from a leading Scottish academic of related research in Scottish institutes. The goal is to increase the awareness among business of the capabilities of the science base, and to enhance the understanding within the science base of market trends and resultant technological opportunities. Industries covered to date are semiconductors, oil and gas, optoelectronics, pharmaceuticals, software, healthcare and nanotechnology, reflecting the issues identified by the national Foresight Programme.