The free service, the first of its kind in the UK, encourages Scottish businesses to collaborate with academics and, in the three years since its inception, has generated more than 500 matches.

More pleasing is that around 100 "live" projects are currently underway – a mixture of licence deals, research collaborations, consultancy projects and student research. What we are seeing is a golden opportunity for companies operating in any sector to gain easier access to Scotland's world-class technology expertise and research – our universities and research institutes provide a vast diversity of expertise.

Some of these collaborations lead to ground-breaking working partnerships. Recently, Interface introduced Nairn's Oatcakes to five groups of academics before they opted to partner with the Invergowrie-based Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) on a research and development knowledge transfer partnership.

This gives Nairn's Oatcakes access to laboratory and testing equipment at the SCRI's premises which will help the company achieve its twin objectives of extending product shelf life and health properties.

Scientific research will help improve the product through a better understanding and management of chemical pathways and possible causes of rancidity while still preserving the oat product's selling points of taste, flavour and nutritional value.

There's also the collaboration between the Division of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at Glasgow University and Inverness company DanMedical, a computer-based medical equipment product developer.

The company has been able to bring a product to market that uses diagnostic software technology developed in association with the university's senior cardiology academics that offers significant benefits to healthcare professionals from GP surgeries to hospitals.

DanMedical is now in a three-year licensing agreement with Glasgow University to integrate the new software system into their product range available to medical professionals.

We are always pleased to see these research and development opportunities bearing fruit.

In Scotland there is such a wealth of expertise and specialist knowledge available within our academic community and it's our job to unravel the complexities of collaboration.

Anyone with the responsibility of finding someone that can help take research and development to the next level knows what a challenge it can be.

All of our collaborations – science-based or otherwise – are at the cutting edge of industry. Each project that launches adds a wealth to commercially driven partnerships that focus directly on the vitality of academic expertise we have in Scotland.

Given the raft of small and medium-sized businesses we offer assistance to, it demonstrates that this way of working is no longer just the preserve of large pharmaceutical companies looking to tap into the opportunities of new drug discoveries or other advances in medical science.

Certainly, that has been the long-held view, but increasingly and encouragingly we're fostering links and bridging the gap for smaller companies who perhaps would never have dreamed of using academic research as a way forward.

It is understandable that working with an academic partner would not normally be an automatic choice for a small business, but increasingly with more companies looking to identify ways of enhancing profitability, particularly in these trying economic times, we offer a helping hand to channel individual business needs in a different direction that can establish immeasurable benefits to them.

This "helping hand" is underpinned by a series of events Interface is running this November in partnership with the Economic Social Research Council. These events – being staged throughout Scotland – are aimed at assisting businesses across all sectors to access expert knowledge, funding, fresh ideas and research evidence to help businesses develop and grow.

• Dr Siobhán Jordan is the director of Interface

• www.interface-online.org.uk