An open challenge approach is simply a process by which an organisation sets out a challenge (or problem) without prescribing a solution, and invites anyone — an individual, team or business — with a brilliant idea to submit a proposal into an open and fair competition. It’s a great way for the public sector to tap into the entire sum of innovation, creativity and ingenuity out there. For an innovative company or entrepreneur, it’s a great opportunity to create a product that solves a real problem, and win that valuable first customer.

A Challenge Sponsor is the public or third sector organisation that has brought us a problem to solve, and we’ve used to launch a CivTech Challenge. Challenge Sponsors help select the best ideas, work closely with participants through the Exploration, Accelerator and PCA Stages and — providing a viable solution emerges — usually become the first customer for your finished product.

We aim to launch a full set of Challenges once a year, with a six-week period during which applicants can submit proposals. These new Challenges are published on our website, and announced through our mailing list, on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.

Responses have to be submitted via Public Contracts Scotland, the single point of entry for Scottish public sector contracts. It’s free an easy to sign up, and details of how to apply are published on our website alongside each Challenge. 

Anyone can respond to a CivTech Challenge. Individuals, formal and informal teams, academic teams, pre-start businesses, start-ups, established businesses of all sizes, charities, and community groups are all welcome to apply. 

If your team makes it through the Exploration Stage and is selected for the Accelerator, you will need to form a company — something many previous participants have done.

Neither CivTech nor the Challenge Sponsor take ownership of your IP or equity. However, by joining the Accelerator you grant the Challenge Sponsor a perpetual royalty-free license that allows them to use the product you create together. 

If you enter into a Pre-Commercial Agreement after the Accelerator, you will define a set of ‘business purposes’ with your Challenge Sponsor to further clarify what rights they have to use the IP created. Business purposes are set at this stage because it’s usually very difficult to define them any earlier in the process.

The CivTech Programme takes an open challenge approach, which always starts with a real problem brought to us by a public sector organisation. That means we’re unable to create a Challenge in response to a product that already exists. If you have an innovative product or service that you think could benefit the public sector you can submit a proposal to Scotland Innovates.

If you believe your product could solve part of a Challenge we’ve published, you are welcome to submit a response — many successful CivTech solutions are built on top of a pre-existing piece of tech. CivTech is not a route to sell a fully-formed product, and we will expect you to explain clearly in your application what further innovation and development work will take place through the Accelerator and beyond.

No, it’s up to public sector organisations to identify their problems and bring them to CivTech. If you think there’s real benefit to be gained from solving the problem you’ve identified, reach out to the relevant organisation and talk with them directly.

No, CivTech is open to everyone regardless of location. Although bear in mind that while the Exploration and Accelerator Stages are mostly delivered and managed remotely, you will be required to attend a series of in-person events in Edinburgh during the Exploration and Accelerator Stages.

Depending on the Challenge you apply for, you may also need to work in-person with your Challenge Sponsor in other locations, but this can be discussed with them during the early stages of the process.

As an SME, start-up, pre-start up or entrepreneur, CivTech offers an unprecedented opportunity to engage with the public sector in a meaningful, effective and productive way by solving a Challenge, building a product, and developing a relationship with a major public sector organisation. It’s a chance to build a business, and do some good along the way.

Yes. As long as you prepare distinct and well thought-out proposals, you can apply for several separate Challenges, or submit multiple applications for the same Challenge.

If you are considered for more than one Challenge we will of course assess the capacity of your team to deliver.

Payments are released in one lump sum at the end of the Exploration Stage, and in five tranches through the Accelerator Stage. Checkgate meetings are held every few weeks, where Challenge Sponsors and the CivTech team get together with you to review progress and — providing things are on track — approve the release of payments. Engagement with the Workshop System, being a mandatory part of the Accelerator, is also taken into account at these meetings.

A successful team will encompass a range of skills, across tech, product and business development. If your approach relies on a specific technology you should have the necessary expertise  in your core team, but you don’t need every skillset covered at the outset — we can work with you to agree a plan to fill these gaps over time.

Accelerators are a widely-adopted approach to building products and businesses in very short periods of time. They typically involve a cohort of teams or companies working intensively against a common timetable of just a few months, before presenting their results in the hope of securing further funding. The first accelerator — Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator — launched in 2005, and the model quickly spread across the rest of the US, Europe and the world. Well-known companies such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit can trace their roots back to accelerators — along with countless other hugely successful tech businesses.

The CivTech Accelerator was designed around this well-proven method, but with an approach carefully adapted to fit the Scottish public sector. We are not led by an investor or corporation focussed on profit and shareholder value; instead, we’re focussed on creating better public services for Scotland, and opportunities for innovative teams and companies to win world-class early customers.

A private sector accelerator will typically see just 20% of its products succeed. CivTech turns this on its head; around 80% of our companies receive further funding and their products continue to be developed after the Accelerator. The vast majority remain in use many years later, expand into new markets, win further investment and become viable, successful businesses.

An MVP is a Minimum Viable Product. It’s another insight from the tech industry, which recognises that in order to be useful, a product doesn’t need every possible function and feature — just the ones that will make it operationally useful and prove its worth. Depending on the Challenge, and depending on the proposal taken through to the Accelerator, a CivTech MVP might take different forms. Indeed, the full nature of the solution — and so the MVP — might not be apparent until some way into the Accelerator.

CivTech’s Business Workshop System is designed to drive your understanding of what it takes to run a truly great business. It covers both product and business development areas, and is delivered by a collection experts who have been highly successful in their areas and really have been there, done it, and continue to do so. The workshops are scheduled in such a way that they create a coherent and understandable narrative, with mentoring and coaching running in parallel.

We encourage maximum engagement from everyone, and with good reason. Even if someone’s role in the team isn’t fundamentally business, and no matter how much they want to focus on just one activity, they’ll need to work across multiple areas at the start because few start-ups have the resources to bring everyone and everything in. And as a founder and shareholder they’ll need to contribute to some pretty far-reaching decisions: how are they going to make an informed call unless they understand business?

And if someone is experienced, doing the workshops with their team will only strengthen a common understanding of how the business will grow. More than that: the knowledge they have and can share will add context and depth for their team and—because the CivTech ethos is one of collaboration and mutual help — every business in the room. And there’s always more to learn: the world is always moving on, new ideas emerge, and smart people never stop learning.

A Pre-Commercial Agreement (PCA) is a contractual agreement that enables further pre-commercial development work on the solution to your Challenge, to take the MVP developed in the Accelerator through to a commercially viable product. PCAs aren’t a guaranteed stage of the CivTech process and there is no obligation from anyone to enter into one. The decision to proceed with a PCA is typically based on the success of the MVP and the company’s proposed plans for the Pre-Commercial Stage. A PCA itself is negotiated between the company, CivTech and the Challenge Sponsor.