Vision 2035 – A Blueprint for Scotland to Develop a World Leading Technology Sector

Published on the 25th March, the Scottish Technology Council has released their 2025-26 Report.

This defines ‘Vision 2035: Scotland’s Next Horizon‘, which aims to develop a world leading Scottish technology sector.

The Council, a non-statutory advisory body established in May 2025 and chaired by Business Minister Richard Lochhead MSP, brings together leaders from industry, academia, and entrepreneurship. Its goal is to guide Scotland’s tech-driven economic growth and position the country as a global technology leader by 2035.

Global Leadership ‘Moonshots’

The Scotland’s Technology Council 2025-26 Report outlines a strategic roadmap for establishing Scotland as a global leader in innovation and emerging technologies. Established in May 2025, the Council provides expert advice to the Scottish Government on leveraging national strengths in artificial intelligence, clean energy, and life sciences.

The document introduces Vision 2035, a framework centered on four “moonshot” strategies designed to attract international capital and accelerate the growth of high-potential scale-ups. It identifies critical structural barriers, such as talent shortages and procurement hurdles, that must be addressed to enhance national competitiveness. Ultimately, the report serves as a call to action for the incoming government to prioritize infrastructure investment and system alignment to secure a prosperous, tech-driven economic future.

This planning has resulted in four “Priority Domains” that will serve as the pillars of our future economy:

Priority Domain 1: Becoming an AI-Ready Nation

Scotland’s goal is to become Europe’s premier AI-ready nation. This is an era-defining shift where we move beyond being consumers of AI to becoming the masters of the infrastructure that powers it.

• Pillar Name The 2035 Goal
• Sovereign Infrastructure Establishing 5GW of sovereign inference data-centre capacity.
• Open Data Creating openly licensed, privacy-preserving datasets to fuel domestic innovation.
• Open Source Developing Scottish open-source AI models to ensure equitable access for every citizen.

Learning Insight The concept of “sovereign inference” is a matter of Digital Sovereignty. If Scotland does not possess the domestic computing power to run its own AI models, it risks becoming a digital colony of foreign tech giants. By owning our inference capacity, we own our future.

Priority Domain 2: Global Green Energy Leadership

While AI provides the intelligence, it requires a massive, clean engine to stay powered. Scotland is transitioning from being an “oil and gas” nation to a global “green energy” powerhouse. This is backed by a monumental £25 billion investment strategy to rebuild our energy infrastructure for the post-carbon age.

Green Energy Milestones:

• Massive Infrastructure Investment: A £25 billion commitment toward generation, interconnectors, and long-duration storage.
• Focus on Static Storage: Developing the ability for homes and businesses to store cheap renewable energy locally.
• Technology Synthesis: Using Scottish expertise in photonics and power electronics to create the most efficient energy grid on the planet.

Learning Insight “Static Storage” is the technology that will democratize energy. By capturing surplus wind power at 3:00 AM and storing it for use during the evening peak, we stabilize the grid and lower energy bills for everyone. It is the bridge between environmental sustainability and economic affordability.

Priority Domain 3: Personalised and Preventative Healthcare

As we secure the health of our environment, we must simultaneously revolutionize the health of our citizens. We are moving from a “sick-care” system to a “health-care” system. By integrating the trusted, comprehensive data of the NHS with our world-class university research, Scotland will lead the world in longevity and preventative medicine.

• The Challenge: Fragmented, siloed data and a medical model that only reacts after a patient becomes ill.
• The 2035 Vision: A secure, integrated data “nervous system” that enables Longevity Science—the study of extending a healthy, active lifespan.

Learning Insight For the future workforce, this means a paradigm shift in medical careers. We will see a move away from purely reactive surgery toward data-driven longevity coaching, where AI and genetics help doctors prevent disease before it ever manifests. The “Interface” between the NHS and researchers means your local hospital becomes a laboratory for the world’s next cures.

Priority Domain 4: Advanced Connectivity & Critical Technologies

None of this—AI, Energy, or Health—can exist without the invisible critical technologies that connect our world. The economy of 2035 will run on three “Critical Technologies” that form the brains and nervous system of the nation. This supercluster is projected to reach £10 billion in turnover and support 17,500 jobs by 2035, while our Space sector is targeted to deliver £4 billion in revenue.

• Semiconductors: The “brains” of every modern device. Scotland is building resilient supply chains for these essential chips.
• Photonics: The science of “using light to move data.” This allows us to transmit information faster and more efficiently than traditional electricity.
• Quantum Technologies: Computing that can solve problems in seconds that would take today’s most powerful supercomputers years to process.

Learning Insight By setting “Next-Generation Standards,” Scotland ensures it is a builder of the world’s infrastructure, not just a customer. This secures our place in global supply chains and creates the high-value manufacturing jobs that will sustain our economy.

To turn these four domains into reality, the Council has launched four “10x” moonshot strategies. These are the active commands to “turbocharge” our economic engine, focusing on scale, speed, and massive capital injection.

• 10x Global Capital – Crowd in a £100bn National Economic Investment Fund. Anchor world-class companies and infrastructure in Scotland.
• 10x Scale-ups – Stimulate growth via a National Founders Institute and Silicon Valley hub. Help Scottish companies grow internationally with “global velocity.”
• 10x Spinouts – Anchor pathways from university research to commercial venture. Turn world-leading research into world-leading profitable companies.
• 10x Purchasing – Launch “Buy Scottish” procurement initiatives. Use the government’s buying power to be the “first customer” for local tech.

Learning Insight It is vital to understand that the £100bn Investment Fund is a public-private partnership, not just government spending. The “Buy Scottish” strategy is the “So What?” for our local inventors; it ensures that if you build a world-changing product in Scotland, your own government will be your first and most loyal customer.

Overcoming Frictions: What Must Change?

However, a vision this bold faces significant “frictions” that we must systematically eliminate. The Council has identified five “Critical System Frictions” that act as the brakes on our national progress. Our success depends on shifting our mindset from “administration” to “acceleration.”

• Talent: We must prioritize speed of hiring. (Fix: Streamlining immigration and hiring cycles to take weeks, not months).
• Leadership: We must shift from founder-led to scale-led companies. (Fix: Importing and developing executives with experience in global growth).
• Markets: Current procurement is a blocker. (Fix: Rewriting risk frameworks so innovative SMEs can win large contracts).
• Finance: We have a “Series B” growth capital gap. (Fix: Ensuring large-scale investment is available so companies don’t have to leave Scotland to find funding).
• Structural Fragmentation: The support landscape is a confusing web. (Fix: Creating a single owner of the scale-up journey to remove administrative burden).

Learning Insight The ultimate measure of success is retention. We want a world where a Scottish entrepreneur can start a company in Inverness or Glasgow and grow it into a global giant without ever feeling forced to move to London or New York to find talent, capital, or clear guidance.

Conclusion: The Next Ten Months

The window for action is closing. The next ten months are a critical sprint to define our success metrics and begin the heavy lifting on the infrastructure—the data centers and the green energy grids—that will define the next century.

Vision 2035 Success Metric “Success should be measured by the reduction of friction for founders. It is measured by whether companies can hire in weeks rather than months, and whether Scottish firms can win domestic contracts before expanding globally.”

By aligning our AI readiness, our green energy surplus, our personalized health data, and our critical connectivity, Scotland is not just preparing for the future—we are building it. Together, these domains create a high-value, tech-driven nation that delivers prosperity for every Scot.