Leader of Glasgow City Council – Councillor Susan Aitken

“I am delighted to introduce you to Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city and the beating heart of a metropolitan region of breadth, diversity, experience and opportunity.  Ours is a growing city of more than 630,000 inhabitants, over a third of the regional population of 1.8 million. As an anchor of Scotland’s central belt and its population of 3.5 million, Glasgow borrows the genuine scale to place it among Europe’s 20 largest urban areas.

The recent host of COP26, we are a city transformed, outward-looking, dynamic and ambitious. A renowned centre of culture, sport, education, innovation and commerce,  Glasgow is becoming a global leader in new, low carbon economies within digital, science and technology, as well as life sciences and precision medicine. We are now one of the UK’s top two most attractive technology locations and a natural focus for the knowledge economy.  The city’s internationally acclaimed universities and colleges have helped reconnect the city with its DNA of business, creativity, life sciences, engineering and design, both attracting and retaining a professional and skilled talent base.

Building on Glasgow’s rich heritage of industry, ingenuity and invention, we are home to three innovation districts: Glasgow Riverside Innovation District (GRID), Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID) and Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS).  Anchored by the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, these are thriving hubs of Research and Development, entrepreneurship and collaboration.  In addition, the Glasgow city region is now one of three new UK innovation accelerators, established to drive-up prosperity and opportunity for local people.  With Glasgow setting the ambitious target of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030 and building on its global standing as a leading city in transition, we are prioritising the innovation and ingenuity that will set the pace for a cleaner, greener, fairer and more productive net zero future.

Glasgow’s time is now.  I hope you will join us to explore the many exciting investment and development opportunities this great city has to offer.”