Navigating Scotland’s Digital Health and Social Care Innovation Ecosystem : Mapping Support Structures from an Entrepreneurial Perspective

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Cáceres-Fegrero, Yazmin and Rimpiläinen, Sanna and Lyons, Abigail A. (2026) Navigating Scotland’s Digital Health and Social Care Innovation Ecosystem : Mapping Support Structures from an Entrepreneurial Perspective. Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), Glasgow. (https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00095735)

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Abstract

This report presents the first structured mapping of Scotland’s digital health and social care innovation support ecosystem from an entrepreneurial perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach combining ecosystem mapping based on desk review, readiness-level analysis, and engagement with key stakeholders and entrepreneurs, the study identifies 59 organisations supporting innovation across the Quadruple Helix domains of academia, industry, the public sector and the third sector. The analysis reveals a broad yet highly specialised ecosystem, in which support is primarily concentrated in the early stages of innovation — such as funding, mentoring and networking — while functions related to regulation, service integration and system adoption appear less visible and more fragmented. The findings suggest that the principal challenge for innovators is not the absence of support, but the difficulty of navigating and sequencing existing resources throughout the innovation journey. At the same time, the study highlights that, although a relatively established base of support exists for digital health innovation, support specifically directed towards digital social care innovation remains less visible, less clearly articulated and more difficult to identify.

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