Building a techology-driven solution to engage primary school children in their future careers and getting people with long-term illnesses to access additional digital services to enhance their care are among a series of new challenges issued today in the latest round of the CivTech programme.

CivTech – the Scottish Government’s innovative tech procurement scheme – has published five new challenges as part of a ‘staggered’ launch of its 4.0 series.

Alzheimer Scotland, Skills Development Scotland, the Student Awards Agency Scotland, Digital Scotland and Edinburgh City Council will all take part in the latest series of challenges issued to tech startups to help transform services. Skills Development Scotland has issued the challenge of using tech to inspire primary school children to think about their futures and Alzheimer Scotland wants to enable people with long-term illnesses to access technologies that can enhance their care.

The Student Awards Agency Scotland wants technology to be make it easier for students to access funding opportunities, and to reduce drop-out rates among the most disadvantaged groups; Digital Scotland is aiming to create a solution which will enable public sector organisations in Scotland to increase the pace of Digital Transformation by drawing on the resources, experiences and expertise gained on previous public sector projects. And Edinburgh City Council wants to be able to use technology to manage the property condition of communal areas in privately owned tenements.

The first batch of challenges was released on Monday and has a deadline for initial responses of August 12; the second batch (challenges 6-10), will be released next Wednesday (July 24) and will have a deadline of August 21. The two selection stages will be late August/early September with up to three suppliers invited to an ‘exploration’ stage with the winning candidate going through to a four-month Accelerator – where a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will be created – ahead of the CivTech 4.0 Demo Day on March 4, 2020.

For full details of the scheme and how to apply visit here.