National Productivity Week 27th November 2023 | Visit Website

A diverse community of
leading experts, policymakers
and practitioners

The Institute’s key research themes
are led by ten academic partners
spread across the UK.

We’re a UK-wide research
organisation exploring what
productivity means for business

Businesses are crucial to solving
the UK’s productivity problems.

Business

Scotland Productivity Forum

Scotland has a population of 5.4 million, with 70% living in the central belt, between the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom’s land area, consisting of the northern third of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands. Once dominated by shipbuilding, coal mining and steel industries, Scotland’s key economic areas are now oil and gas, financial services, life sciences and tourism.

RPF logo for Scotland

The Scotland Productivity Forum is led by the University of Glasgow. It is involved in the implementation of research insights, the design of practical business and policy interventions, and in providing input to the development of the Institute’s future research agenda.

Members include stakeholders from policy, community and business leaders from local, national and multinational enterprises.

Key Contacts

Carolyn Currie

Scotland Forum Chair
Women’s Enterprise Scotland

John Tsoukalas

Professor John Tsoukalas

Scotland Forum Lead
University of Glasgow

Bridgette Wessels

Professor Bridgette Wessels

Scotland Forum Co-Lead
University of Glasgow

Committee

Andrew Duncan

Soar

Andrew Robertson

Glasgow City Council

Dr Nuran Acur

Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

Eve Wallace

Morgan Stanley

Gary Gillespie

The Scottish Government

Pheona Matovu

Radiant and Brighter

Professor Eugenio Proto

Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

Professor John Finch

Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

Professor Mark Logan

University of Glasgow

Sara Thiam

Scottish Council for Development and Industry

Uzma Khan

University of Glasgow

Graeme Roy

Dean of External Engagement, University of Glasgow

Eleonora Vanello

Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI)

Cornilius Chikwama

Audit Scotland

Scotland’s productivity performance is one of puzzles and apparent contradictions, with strength in some areas but below average performance elsewhere. For example, Scotland has
one of the most educated workforces in the OECD through its renowned group of world-leading universities. At the same time, Glasgow is in the bottom 10 UK cities for the highest percentage of its working age population with no qualifications. Scotland has had great success in high productivity sectors such as energy, finance and other knowledge intensive service industries.  however, highly productive firms account for a small number of employment and employers report various skills gaps that hold back their growth potential.

Under devolution, responsibility for improving productivity in Scotland is shared across different tiers of  government. Key macroeconomic, industrial, innovation and fiscal levers are controlled by the UK central government, impacting on business tax policies, policies to support internationalisation, access to finance and regulatory levers. The Scottish Government controls more of the microeconomic levers to support productivity. This includes the education and skills system, support for business start-ups and broader economic development, infrastructure, and small business growth.