Scotland's innovators could benefit from a further government cash boost which is designed to help ensure "world-beating" research is made commercially successful.

Wendy Alexander, the Scottish Executive's enterprise and lifelong learning minister, said �1m would go to the Proof of Concept Fund.

The fund is managed by Scottish Enterprise with the aims of kick starting the commercial potential of Scotland's finest innovations.

Ms Alexander said: "Scotland's academics have long deserved their international reputation for innovative thinking but, historically, we have lagged behind in bringing new products and processes to the market place and using them as a foundation for business success.

"This fund underpins our drive to ensure this world-class research and innovation is translated into jobs and businesses for Scotland."

'Real impact'

The fund, which was launched in 1999, has already backed a number of projects including anti-cancer drugs, personal alarms for elderly and disabled people, processes for assessing the quality of meat and computer game technology.

Ms Alexander added: "Not only do these have huge commercial potential, a number of them will have a real impact on people's everyday lives."

One of the projects set to benefit from the latest funding announcement is being run by computer scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

They will get �200,000 towards developing digital technology which could dramatically reduce the cost of film-making and television production.