The Scottish Government has set an ambitious target for the nation’s life sciences sector — to achieve £25 billion in turnover by 2035. Its newly published ‘Life Sciences Strategy for Scotland: 2035 Vision’ outlines a roadmap for growth built on collaboration, innovation, and sustainable manufacturing.

For BHTA members operating in the life sciences and medical technology sectors, this strategy highlights several areas of direct relevance — from health technology development, to advanced manufacturing, and closer NHS collaboration.

Launching the strategy, Scottish Government Business Minister Richard Lochhead said: “Our ambition is to make Scotland’s life sciences industry the best in the world. With a highly skilled workforce, world-class research base, and an already thriving ecosystem, this strategy provides the framework to deliver sustainable economic growth while improving health outcomes.”

A growing and diverse life sciences landscape

The Scottish Government defines the life sciences sector broadly, covering human, animal, microbial, and plant sciences. Many of these areas overlap directly with the expertise of BHTA members involved in medical devices, digital health, assistive technologies, and healthcare manufacturing.

Key growth areas highlighted in the strategy include:

• HealthTech – covering the design and manufacture of medical devices, diagnostic tools, digital health solutions, and software. Examples include imaging systems, AI-driven diagnostics, wearable monitoring devices, and patient care technologies.
• Advanced Manufacturing – embedding sustainable and digital production methods across life sciences, supported by innovation centres such as the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre, and the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre.
• Digital, Data, & AI – the creation of AI Scotland, a new national body to coordinate artificial intelligence initiatives and accelerate innovation in health and MedTech, including an SME adoption programme.
• Industrial Biotechnology – sustainable materials and processes with applications in wound care, implants, and drug delivery systems, aligning with Scotland’s wider net-zero ambitions.

These sub-sectors form a strong foundation for Scotland’s “Northern Star” network of life sciences clusters, spanning centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen, with innovation hubs across the Highlands and Islands. Each region contributes to a nationwide ecosystem supporting manufacturing, digital health, and R&D collaboration.

Opportunities for collaboration and innovation

For BHTA members — especially medical device manufacturers and healthcare technology providers — several initiatives within the strategy are particularly relevant:

• Regional Innovation Hubs – Three NHS-led hubs will support Scottish SMEs in testing, validating, and scaling innovative technologies aligned with NHS priorities. This could streamline pathways for BHTA members to bring products into clinical use.
• Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway – A mechanism to assess and adopt transformative medical technologies at scale across NHS Scotland, offering a faster route to market for approved innovations.
• Cluster Development Organisation – A new industry-led body will coordinate Scotland’s life sciences network, fostering collaboration between academia, businesses, and government.
• Infrastructure and Lab Space Expansion – Planned investment will address capacity constraints for start-ups and manufacturers by developing new laboratory, and production facilities across key Scottish regions.

These initiatives collectively aim to strengthen the connection between innovation, regulation, and adoption — helping manufacturers translate new ideas into accessible products that improve patient outcomes.

Additional areas of relevance to BHTA members

The strategy also places a strong focus on areas that align closely with the priorities of BHTA members:

• Integration with the NHS – Through initiatives like Scotland Innovates and the ANIA Pathway, companies will have more structured routes to engage with the NHS. This is particularly relevant for BHTA members developing devices, assistive technologies, or digital solutions that can improve patient care.
• Sustainability in manufacturing – With Scotland targeting net zero by 2045, the strategy encourages greener production methods, and sustainable design principles. Many BHTA members, particularly those in assistive technologies and mobility equipment, are already advancing this agenda through product innovation and resource efficiency.
• Skills and workforce development – Updated apprenticeship frameworks and partnerships between education and industry will help build the next generation of skilled workers in medical technology and healthcare manufacturing. This focus supports the long-term growth of BHTA member companies.
• Digital health and data use – The establishment of Research Data Scotland and AI Scotland provides new opportunities for members working with digital health solutions, or AI-based devices, to leverage health data ethically and effectively for innovation.

By combining these elements, the strategy sets the stage for a more connected, data-driven, and sustainable life sciences sector — one in which medical device and technology manufacturers play a vital role in driving innovation and improving health outcomes across Scotland.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published a new strategy that is designed to radically cut the number of single-use medical devices in the NHS.

Disposable medical devices substantially contribute to the 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste that the NHS produces every year in England alone. DHSC says this major crackdown on waste in the NHS will save millions of pounds a year.

The new strategy, ‘Design for Life Roadmap’, means that BHTA members that manufacture medical devices should focus on producing sustainable products, as the NHS is slashing waste and prioritising reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling.

Doing so will create thousands more UK jobs and help transform the country into a life sciences superpower, according to the UK Government. As it stands, millions of devices, like walking aids and surgical instruments, are thrown away after just one use.

The government will encourage more innovation to safely remanufacture a wider range of products and drive costs down, including by changing procurement rules to incentivise reusable products and rolling out examples where hospitals are already leading the way on cutting wasteful spending and practices.

Approximately £10 billion each year is spent on medical technology like this in the NHS, but too much of it is imported via vulnerable routes that risk disrupting patient care, the government states. 

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The NHS is broken. It is the mission of this government to get it back on its feet, and we can’t afford a single penny going to waste.

“Because the NHS deals in the billions, too often it doesn’t think about the millions. That has to change. This government inherited a £22 billion blackhole in the public finances, so we will have a laser-like focus on getting better value for taxpayers’ money.

“Every year, millions of expensive medical devices are chucked in the bin after being used just once. We are going to work closely with our medical technology industry, to eliminate waste and support homegrown medtech and equipment.”

In one case study, Mid Yorkshire Trust uses 330,000 single-use tourniquets in a year, but a single reusable tourniquet can be used 10,000 times. In a one-year trial, reusable alternatives saved £20,000 in procurement costs and 0.75 metric tonnes of plastic waste.

The Design for Life programme will reduce this kind of waste and achieve an NHS-wide move to sustainable alternatives, also supporting the government’s net zero goals. The new roadmap sets out 30 actions to achieve this shift, including how the government will work with companies to encourage the production of more sustainable products, along with training for NHS staff on how to use them.

Taking this approach will mean more money can be spent in the UK, DHSC underlines, driving growth and creating more engineering, life sciences, and research jobs, while securing savings for the NHS budget.

Many of these products include precious metals such as platinum and titanium, which are in high demand but go to landfill when they could be recovered and sold. A reduction in the amount of disposed single-use devices will also reduce the country’s carbon footprint and plastic pollution.

The government will encourage industry figures to innovate by making sure benefits of reusable medtech are part of how the NHS chooses the products it buys.

The Design for Life programme was developed with more than 80 stakeholders from the UK medtech industry, the health and care system, and research organisations.