SAGES

What SAGES does

SAGES (Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society) is a multi-institutional research alliance coordinating earth, environmental, and societal research across nine Scottish Higher Education Institutions and research bodies: the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Highlands and Islands, St Andrews, and West of Scotland, alongside the British Geological Survey (Scotland) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Operating out of Glasgow and Edinburgh, SAGES is a publicly funded academic consortium and a member of Research Innovation Scotland; it is not a commercial entity and does not sell products or services to external customers. Its "customers" in the institutional sense are its nine partner members, supported by an administrator (Carol Thomson) and a rotating academic Director (currently Brice Rea, preceded by Matteo Spagnolo).

SAGES delivers four core programmatic lines: a SAGES Graduate School for PhD and early-career researchers (writing retreats, science communication workshops, small grants); the Annual Science Meeting as a flagship networking and dissemination event; the Small Grants Scheme (up to £2,500 per award, with a separate Large Proposal Challenge Fund ≥£1.2M) and the Climate Science Podcast funded by the Scottish Government Climate Engagement Fund and distributed across major podcast platforms. Research activity is organised into four themes (Landscape Form Use and Change; Carbon and Biogeochemical Cycles; Atmosphere Oceans and Climate; Transformations in Society and Environmental Policy) and nine specialised fora (e.g., ESM-AI, CryoExchange, Source to Sea). Two international collaboration schemes - with ArcticNet and Geoverbund ABC/J - extend the network beyond Scotland.

The business model is non-commercial: SAGES coordinates and disburses research funding to members, supported through Scottish government and institutional channels rather than priced offerings; revenue is not publicly disclosed. The alliance is currently in its fourth operational phase (commenced 1 February 2026), indicating renewed multi-year backing. Distribution and member engagement run through the partner-university network, the sages.ac.uk website, Bluesky, LinkedIn, an ECCI-distributed MailChimp newsletter, and the annual meeting.

Name

SAGES

Legal name

Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society

Website

https://sages.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SAGES is a publicly funded Scottish academic research alliance coordinating earth, environmental, and societal research across nine partner universities and research bodies, delivering graduate training, grant schemes, and an annual science meeting to academic members.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research Alliance

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Research Administration & Compliance (Sponsored Programs, IRB/REB) (EDADAKAH), Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC)

Keywords

• Geoscience research alliance
• Environmental science research
• Academic research consortium
• Research funding coordination
• Graduate researcher training

Headquarters

HQ city

Glasgow

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Research Funding Coordination: SAGES coordinates and distributes research funding to member researchers across Scottish universities, supporting conference attendance, individual research activities, equipment purchases, sample analyses, data access, workshops, and networking events.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

SAGES is a multi-institutional research alliance coordinating earth, environmental and societal science research across nine Scottish universities and research institutions. It operates as a publicly funded academic consortium that pools research expertise, distributes research funding through mechanisms such as the Small Grants Scheme and Large Proposal Challenge Fund, runs the Graduate School for early career researchers, and hosts events including the Annual Science Meeting and the SAGES Climate Science Podcast.

Product overview

SAGES (Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment & Society) is a multi-institutional research partnership network rather than a commercial product company. The organization operates as an alliance of Scottish universities and research institutions pooling expertise in earth, environmental, and societal research. The core offerings include the SAGES Graduate School providing research training, the SAGES Climate Science Podcast for public engagement, the Annual Science Meeting for knowledge sharing, and the Small Grants Scheme for funding member research. Research activities are organized through four thematic areas (Landscape Dynamics, Carbon Cycles, Atmosphere/Climate, Society/Policy) and eight specialized Research Fora covering topics from comparative planetology to water futures to AI applications in earth system modelling.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SAGES Graduate School Graduate education and training program supporting PhD and early career researchers across SAGES member institutions, offering workshops, writing retreats, science communication training, and small grants for research activities.
• SAGES Climate Science Podcast A 10-part climate science podcast series funded by the Scottish Government Climate Engagement Fund, distributed across Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Podbean, and Amazon Music.
• Annual Science Meeting (ASM) Annual flagship conference event bringing together SAGES researchers for oral and poster presentations, keynote speeches, networking, and awards competitions for best published paper and poster.
• Small Grants Scheme Funding program providing up to £750 for travel and conference expenses, £1,500 for workshops, or £2,500 for access to cutting-edge knowledge or techniques for SAGES member researchers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 17th call for Small Grants Scheme funding announced in 2026
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Research Innovation ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSAGES is a member of Research Innovation Scotland, an organization that coordinates research and innovation across Scottish institutions.
• ArcticNetcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSAGES partners with ArcticNet to offer collaborative grant funding for research teams. ArcticNet brings together scientists, engineers, northern researchers, and professionals in human health to address issues of climate change.
• Geoverbund ABC/JminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSAGES has an International Collaboration Scheme (SICS) with Geoverbund ABC/J, offering kickstart funding for collaborations. Geoverbund is a German geosciences network with experts in various specializations.
• SUPA (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSAGES offers collaboration funding opportunities in partnership with SUPA, supporting interdisciplinary research initiatives.
• Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI)minorOthersECCI compiles and distributes the SAGES members' newsletter on behalf of the organization.
• MASTS (Marine Alliance for Science and Technology, Scotland)minorOthersMASTS conducts independent reviews of grievances related to SAGES Equality and Diversity statement as a neutral third party.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• N8 Research Partnership: Multi-university research partnership pooling expertise from 8 northern English universities (Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Durham, Lancaster, York). Directly comparable to SAGES as a regionally-focused, multi-institution academic research alliance coordinating collaboration and funding across member HEIs, just with a different UK region.
• White Rose University Consortium: Collaboration between the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York that pools research, training, and funding opportunities across three Yorkshire HEIs. Structurally analogous to SAGES: a UK multi-university research consortium providing graduate training, funding calls, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• UArctic: International network of universities and research institutions focused on the Circumpolar Arctic. Comparable international research alliance sharing SAGES' cold-regions and climate research themes and operating similar member-driven collaboration, funding, and graduate training programs (and SAGES already partners with ArcticNet in this ecosystem).
• Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA): Pooled physics research alliance across Scottish universities (also a SAGES partner). Same Scottish multi-university consortium model, sharing the same HEI members, but focused on physics rather than geoscience/environment. SAGES even has a formal collaboration funding tie-up with SUPA.
• Marine Alliance for Science and Technology, Scotland (MASTS): Scottish pooling alliance for marine science across Scottish universities, including SAMS. Same Scottish multi-institution consortium model as SAGES, with overlapping climate/ocean research themes; serves as SAGES' grievance resolution partner, evidencing close functional comparability.

Broad incumbents

• Worldwide Universities Network (WUN): Global network of 24 research-intensive universities facilitating international research collaboration and early-career researcher mobility. Comparable as a multi-institution research alliance providing funding calls, research mobility, and graduate development, but operating at greater international scale than SAGES.
• Belmont Forum: International partnership of research funding organizations from over 35 countries supporting transdisciplinary global change research. Comparable as an alliance funding environmental and geoscience research collaboration, but operating at a much larger international scale than SAGES.
• Research Innovation Scotland: Coordination body that brings together Scottish research pools including SAGES itself. While SAGES is a member, RIS is the broader parent-tier coordinating entity, providing the umbrella funding and strategic governance context for SAGES' operations.
• British Geological Survey (BGS): UK's principal geoscience survey and a SAGES partner institution (BGS Scotland). Comparable as a UK geoscience research organization with policy-brokering and data-access functions overlapping with SAGES' Landscape Dynamics and Geophysics fora, but operating as a single national institution rather than an alliance.
• UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH): A UKRI-funded research centre delivering independent environmental science on ecosystems, water, and pollution. Overlaps with SAGES' environmental and biogeochemical research themes and serves similar policy-brokering functions, but operates as a single institution rather than a coordinating alliance.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PL9YR6sVnLG3p0DIXF5A6G516P8nmHlvng
• Xx.com/ScotSAGES

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SAGES