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In 2025-26, applications will be assessed on their ability to support the ambitions set out in Scotland’s Destination Scotland – inward attraction of international students, staff, and researchers - Scotland's international education strategy - gov.scot and a separate strand will be assessed against Community Learning and Development priorities.

Projects within this criterion are able to provide opportunities for both staff mobility and vocational training exchanges.

Since SEEP began in 2003, opportunities have been provided for staff mobility and vocational training. Further information on funded projects can be found at: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

The Scottish Government has launched the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Factors programme to improve CVD outcomes with an aim to ‘reduce avoidable CVD death by 20% in 20 years’. The focus is on improving the identification and management of key risk factors which are; high blood pressure, high cholesterol, raised blood sugars, obesity and smoking.

We have also established a new GP enhanced service from the 2025-26 Reform Fund to support 100,000 patients who are at risk of developing CVD.

Our Population Health Framework, soon to be published in partnership with COSLA, will support the creation of environments that positively supports health and wellbeing. It will focus on prevention and tackling the building blocks of health—including good early years and education, fair work and income, healthy places, equitable healthcare, and the broader social and economic drivers of ill health.

Scotland’s Innovation Strategy sets out actions to make Scotland one of the most innovative small nations in the world. We will use innovation as a productivity driver to grow the economy and create jobs in areas of strength.

Scotland’s Enterprise agencies; Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, support Scotland’s businesses to innovate and develop new products and services through several programmes including SMART:SCOTLAND grants.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has recently launched a competitive £2.9 million proof of concept fund to support researchers from Scotland’s universities develop innovative ideas into new products and services.

The Scottish Government recognises that while Scotland is ranked among the top OECD countries and top performing UK regions in Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) spend as a percentage of GDP, Scotland’s Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) spend as a share of GDP is below the OECD average. While Scotland outperforms the EU27 average, the Scottish Government published its National Innovation Strategy in 2023 to increase innovation levels across Scotland, including business R&D spending.

The ten year strategy sets out actions to make Scotland one of the most innovative small nations in the world and will use innovation as a productivity driver to grow the economy and create jobs in areas of strength such as: energy transition; health and life sciences; advanced manufacturing; and the application of data and digital technologies. Specifically, the strategy’s commercialisation programme will support our world-class universities to consistently and effectively convert cutting edge research and technologies into scaling companies.

The Scottish Government is unequivocal in its support for Scotland’s red meat supply chain given its vital role in underpinning our rural communities and making possible our world-class produce.

We are committed to transforming Scottish agriculture, and we will continue to champion our positive vision for Scottish food production. Central to this vision is our commitment to support livestock production right here in Scotland.

We will continue to provide Scotland’s farmers and crofters with direct support including through the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme and Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme. These are key components of the Scottish Government investment in agriculture which is over £660 million per year.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) uses the national waiting times data mart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for treatment as an inpatient or day case under the Treatment Time Guarantee. This data source can be used routinely to identify the specialty of treatment. However, although the records are designed to collect coded information on the procedure that is planned for the patient, this information is often either incomplete, lacking in essential detail and/or its accuracy cannot be assured. In addition, for patients who have completed their wait the procedures that was planned may not always reflect the procedure actually performed after they were admitted for treatment. The latter is not captured through the national data mart. Consequently, PHS is not currently able to report accurately on waiting times to this level of detail.

More detailed information on the procedures that is planned or undertaken for a patient will be held locally by NHS boards.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials regularly meet with the leadership of all NHS Boards to provide support and scrutiny whilst reinforcing national priorities, including further action to reduce waiting times.

In addition, the Scottish Government commissioned the ‘National Planned Care Team’ – part of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) - to support both scheduled and unscheduled service delivery, meeting with all Health Boards either monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or as needed.

The National Planned Care Team supports NHS Boards to address their waiting times through engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, and supports various strategies to reduce the number and length of waits, minimise clinical risk, and ensure capacity is maximised.

Scottish Government officials and the National Planned Care Team meet monthly with Chief Operating Officers and/or Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including General Surgery (the speciality that covers hernia operations).

The Task and Finish Group was established by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Planning and Delivery Board. In line with other Task and Finish Groups, NHS Board regional lead Chief Executives were asked to nominate regional representatives with a range of experience to sit on this Group. Therefore the Scottish Government was not directly involved in determining who should join the Group.

However, the Scottish Government expects that the Group members will engage with a range of staff in their region and other stakeholders where appropriate. Task and Finish groups may create subgroups of the main group, including inviting clinicians with specific training and/or experience, where they require specific clinical expertise or knowledge to help inform the final model.

Clinical radiology specialty training programmes have been filled at 100% in Scotland from 2014 to 2024, with 230 resident doctors successfully completing the training in this period.

The Scottish Government continues to invest heavily in radiology training. We are currently funding around 190 specialty training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places which have been added since 2014, based on modelling and future workforce need.

The transfer and repatriation of mother and babies is a normal component of neonatal care provision in Scotland, ensuring babies receive the most appropriate care at the correct time.

The intention with the new model of care is that mothers in suspected extreme pre-term labour are transferred before they give birth (in-utero transfer) to maternity units in the hospitals that have neonatal intensive care units. We expect that those maternity units will have planned capacity to receive those women.

It is recognised that it will not always be possible to transfer mothers before they give birth, and in that case our specialist neonatal transfer service, ScotSTAR will transfer those babies in specialist ambulances equipped to care for neonates, as this has been established practice for many years. Babies receiving care in one of the three intensive care units will be transferred back to their local neonatal unit for ongoing care as soon as possible.

The Scottish Perinatal network has developed and published guidance for all Boards across Scotland to support identification and transfer of mothers in suspected extreme preterm labour. Experiences of testing the new model of neonatal intensive care showed that the vast majority of mothers in suspected pre-term labour were identified and transferred before giving birth.