Pitch, collaborate and innovate at CeeD’s TradingZone™ event

date and time icon 27 May 2026 10:00 AM  to  3:00 PM Location of Event Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart Campus, 219 Colinton Rd, Edinburgh, EH14 1DJ

Edinburgh Napier University’s Innovation Hub is pleased to be supporting CeeD Scotland to host a high‑energy TradingZone™ pitching event on Wednesday 27 May, bringing together industry, innovators and researchers to explore new opportunities in advanced through‑life product development.

Running from 10am to 3pm at our Craiglockhart Campus, this interactive session is designed to spark practical conversations, surface shared challenges and build collaborations that can accelerate new ideas into real‑world impact.

Connecting research with industry needs

TradingZone™ thrives on diverse expertise, making this an ideal opportunity for academics across the University to engage directly with industry challenges and innovation priorities.

While the themes have strong relevance to engineering and technology, they also intersect with areas such as sustainability; human behaviour; design; data; business models; health; creativity; and user experience.
 What the session will explore

The TradingZone™ will focus on Advanced Through‑Life Product Development, including:

  • AI assisted product design and optimisation
  • Design and development of novel materials
  • Sustainable design, including energy usage, reusability and recycling
  • Human centred design, usability and safety
  • Digital twins for design validation, monitoring and optimisation
  • Advanced manufacturing workflows

Application areas include medical devices, wind turbines, engines, bicycles and wider engineering systems.

Whether you are researching emerging methods, developing new technologies or exploring how innovation can be applied in practice, this event offers a space to test ideas, gain insight and build connections.

What makes TradingZone™ different

TradingZone™ is not a conference and not a networking session. It is:

  • Open discussion
  • Live problem‑solving
  • Collaboration and partnership building

The aim is to identify and develop business and innovation opportunities, especially where collaboration can help ideas move faster and further.

Who can take part and pitch?

This interactive event is open to industry, academia, innovators and problem‑solvers across Scotland. CeeD are looking for 12 pitches in total.

Your pitch can be at any stage of development. Examples include:

  • An early‑stage idea needing insight or validation
  • A research project seeking industry partners
  • A product or service looking for customer channels
  • A technical challenge requiring specialist expertise
  • A start‑up seeking collaborators or co‑founders
  • A more developed opportunity seeking investors or customers

No idea is too early or too advanced – variety strengthens the day.

To be considered as a Speed Pitcher, contact Josie Deacon at: j.deacon@ceed-scotland.com

You do not need to be a CeeD member to take part in this event, it is open to all!

Register here >

CeeD event promo - logos and woman pitching to a table of people

 

woman pitching ideas to group of people around table