Friday 3rd October 2025, 1:29pm
Converge is Scotland’s leading celebration of academic innovation and entrepreneurship, recognising the exceptional talent emerging from the nation’s universities. 2025 marked the biggest Converge Challenge to date, with 22 prizes sharing a total prize fund of £400,000 from life-saving food safety technology to breakthrough medical devices.
This year’s cohort celebrates another exceptional year of university-led innovation, demonstrating Scotland’s position at the forefront of global entrepreneurship and research commercialisation.
Aliyu Dala, a graduate from the School of Engineering, was co-winner of the Blue Economy prize, was awarded £17,500 with his startup Raygonal; transforming seafood production by combining renewable energy, automation and advanced water management to produce fresh, antibiotic-free seafood year-round.
Raygonal’s innovative Aquary system aims to reduce the UK’s £3.5 billion annual seafood import dependency while strengthening local economies and providing sustainable alternatives to traditional frozen seafood supply chains.
Raygonal has facilities at Roslin Innovation Centre's Agri Field Station and in the Agri Tech Hub on Easter Bush Campus, where they are advancing Aquary with SMART: SCOTLAND funding and collaborating with partners to establish a community-driven, sustainable land-based seafood farming cluster.
The winners’ announcement comes as Converge secures its largest-ever funding commitment of £1.26 million from the Scottish Funding Council, providing unprecedented stability for supporting university innovators across Scotland over the next three years.The multi-year investment, running from 2026 to 2028, represents the Scottish Funding Council’s continued confidence in Converge’s role as a catalyst for Scotland’s innovation economy and will enable the programme to support more university entrepreneurs while strengthening partnerships between Scotland’s universities.
Converge has also announced a new strategic partnership with Scottish Enterprise that will create smoother pathways for university entrepreneurs to access business support, from initial concept through to business growth. Both organisations will work together to identify promising intellectual property-rich ventures and provide a coordinated approach to help academic founders navigate the journey from laboratory to market.
“At Converge, we believe Scotland’s universities are home to the next generation of world-changing innovations. This year’s winners exemplify exactly what’s possible when brilliant academic minds are equipped with the business expertise and networks to transform their ideas into commercially successful, impactful companies.
“With our new record funding from the Scottish Funding Council and strategic partnership with Scottish Enterprise, we’re creating an even stronger foundation to support university entrepreneurs on their journey from laboratory to market. Together with Scotland’s universities and our corporate supporters, we’re building an innovation ecosystem where transformative ideas can flourish into the businesses that will define our future economy.”
Adam Kosterka, Executive Director of Converge“Coming hot off the heels of the Scottish Government’s Proof of Concept funding this increased, multi-year backing for the Converge Programme provides a real injection of support for our university researchers, start-ups and spinouts. Critically, it also brings added weight to our ambition to convert more of the world-leading innovations being generated in Scotland into successful business.
“To ensure we capitalise on the innovation and ingenuity within our academic institutions, it is vital that we work together across organisations and across sectors to create a supportive environment for our spinouts to start-up and scale-up. I am delighted that a strategic partnership between Converge and Scottish Enterprise is being developed, helping drive the joined-up support required to help our university entrepreneurs thrive.”
Deputy First Minister Kate ForbesRoslin Innovation Centre
The University of Edinburgh
Easter Bush Campus
Midlothian EH25 9RG
