Just over two years ago, I embarked on a new mission to work with partners to accelerate growth of a nascent industry in Scotland which would not only underpin public services, but had the potential to help protect our environment and deliver economic growth through the creation of new products and services using the power of location data.
It was obvious that location data was pivotal in many organisations both to create innovation and instigate change.
Location Data Scotland was born, and in partnership with Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government and the UK Government Geospatial Commission, I set about helping to build a cluster of organisations active in producing and using geospatial data in Scotland; all linked to location.
Despite having an active emerging geospatial sector, far too few organisations were harnessing the power of location data and too few recognised the business benefits and opportunities available.
The work we are undertaking is a central commitment of the Scottish Government’s geospatial action plan and the UK’s geospatial strategy, and with public, private and academic momentum behind us we’ve seen significant progress made to build a growing cluster of geospatial organisations across Scotland, whilst boosting collaboration and developing a supply chain to nurture growth opportunities.
We knew from the outset that it would require a collective effort connecting policy, data, people, industry and systems. We knew that, given Scotland’s already well-established digital and data industries, we had a strong foundation and ecosystem to build upon.
Since the creation of Location Data Scotland we’ve seen the community grow to include 96 organisations across 23 different industry sectors. There’s been a significant acceleration of capabilities in data analytics, location intelligence, data provision and mapping.
Awareness of the sector means that more and more industries from space and tourism to logistics, food and drink and agriculture are engaging to explore potential collaborations, create new products and services and nurture supply chain opportunities.
Companies like Edinburgh start-up Vahanomy, which is developing innovative artificial intelligence data driven solutions to help accelerate the roll-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, has been able to access data to help test its technology and has two new products including an AI-powered location data intelligence tool that can assess and analyse proposed charging locations with data including demand and supply of services.
More recently, I have been working with organisations such as Alzheimer's Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, exploring how location data can help them pinpoint dedicated support and services to vulnerable people.
As we enter our third year in nurturing development of this exciting new sector with our key partners behind us, we know there are challenges ahead.
As the industry grows and more businesses embrace location data as a growth opportunity, we expect the geospatial skills gap to widen. We’ve been working with the University of Edinburgh, AGI-Scotland and key stakeholders to consider the challenge and assess possible actions to tackle the issue.
Individually, data science and geography have well-developed skills paths, but collectively linking geography with computing science will be needed if we are to ensure we’ve enough skilled professionals to maximise the opportunities the global geospatial industry offers.
Scotland has the potential to be centre stage in this growing global industry. We have the foundations and flourishing ecosystem that can attract global investment, drive innovation, nurture entrepreneurs and start-ups to grow and scale into international success stories.
Looking ahead we are focused on evolving the Location Data Scotland community by growing the directory of companies generating and supplying location data to solve problems, improve services, enhance skills and refine customer experiences.
Through the directory, Scotland will be able to showcase innovation in this emerging area on a global scale.
Dr Ashley Stewart is project lead at Location Data Scotland
