The SDG5 Living Lab, co-founded by Edinburgh Napier University and Women’s Enterprise Scotland in 2024, is transforming how entrepreneurship is taught, supported, and experienced by women and gender-diverse individuals. Rooted in UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality, the Lab is pioneering a new model of inclusive, community-driven enterprise support. It addresses long-standing barriers such as access to funding, mentorship, and networks, through a layered support system that includes gender-aware 1:1 business advice, co-designed courses, tailored discretionary funding, and bespoke leadership development programmes. What makes the SDG5 Living Lab unique is its systemic, participatory approach. The Lab is co-created with the people it serves, centring lived experience, intersectionality, and equity in everything from programme design to storytelling. From launching the first global Startup Huddle for Women and Non-Binary People, to embedding support for neurodivergent entrepreneurs and funding creative, sustainable, and social ventures, the Lab is enabling transformational outcomes for emerging founders. In just one year, it has expanded across three institutions and driven a 15% increase in women’s engagement with Edinburgh Napier’s enterprise hub. It’s not just supporting businesses; it’s reshaping how inclusive entrepreneurship can look and feel within higher education. By integrating research, capacity-building, and community voice, the SDG5 Living Lab is more than a project, it is a scalable, evolving ecosystem for gender-aware innovation. It offers a powerful blueprint for building entrepreneurial environments where every woman and gender-diverse individual can lead, create, and thrive.
Finalist
Female Entrepreneurship Empowerment Award Award
Edinburgh Napier University – SDG5 Living Lab
Finalist Female Entrepreneurship Empowerment Award Award
Edinburgh Napier University - United Kingdom
"Redesigning Enterprise for Equity, Confidence, and Community"
Engage on social media
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bright-red-triangle-edinburgh-napier-university/ (Bright Red Triangle - Edinburgh Napier University's Enterprise Hub)
https://www.linkedin.com/school/edinburgh-napier-university/(Edinburgh Napier University)
https://www.instagram.com/brightrtriangle/(Bright Red Triangle)
https://www.instagram.com/edinburghnapier/(Edinburgh Napier University)
(Edinburgh Napier University)
(Bright Red Triangle)
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Summary
Key People
Dr Emma Ives
Enterprise Manager
Bright Red Triangle,
Edinburgh Napier University
Nick Fannin
Head of Enterprise
Bright Red Triangle,
Edinburgh Napier University
Kendra Byers
Business Engagement & Communications Manager
Bright Red Triangle,
Edinburgh Napier University
Lynne Cadenhead
Entrepreneur in Residence
Edinburgh Napier University/ Chair at Women's Enterprise Scotland
Carolyn Currie
Chief Executive
Women's Enterprise Scotland
Acknowledgements
• Women’s Enterprise Scotland
• Procrastination Station
• Young Women’s Movement
• Axe Boom Boom
• Simple Figures
• Arachas 3
Images
SDG5 Living Lab Launch
Supporting women in Creative Practice
Leadership for Women
Pitch
Networking
Gender Aware Business Adviser Training
Huddle GEN
Trailblazers Start-Up Skills for Women and Gender Minorities
One of our enterpreneurs sharing her entrepreneurial story
IMPACT STORY
Impacting lifes
Kate’s Journey on Trailblazers
Kate joined our Trailblazers: Design Thinking for Enterprising Women course after relocating from Iran to Scotland, where her partner had taken up an academic post. A former business owner with significant entrepreneurial experience, Kate was navigating profound change—adjusting to a new country, learning a new language, and caring for young children, all while trying to reconnect with her identity as an entrepreneur.
She joined Trailblazers seeking direction, but what she found was something deeper, a space grounded in empathy, community, and inclusive practice. Despite initial hesitations around language, Kate fully engaged with the course, often juggling childcare while participating, and sharing ideas with courage and generosity.
In her words:
"I will never forget this course, especially the patience and kindness everyone showed, particularly when I was speaking. I truly appreciate all the thoughtfulness and encouragement."
The course empowered Kate to see herself not as starting over, but as building forward. She left with renewed clarity, a sense of belonging, and a new business idea adapted to her life in Scotland.
Kate’s story is a powerful example of how the SDG5 Living Lab doesn’t just teach entrepreneurship, it rebuilds confidence, nurtures community, and helps women carry their skills and ambitions into new chapters of life with strength and self-belief.
*The name has been altered for privacy.
LEARNINGS
Lessons learned
Our journey with the SDG5 Living Lab has been transformational, and full of unexpected lessons. While we began by focusing on women in business, we quickly realised that many facing the greatest barriers didn’t identify with that label. Broadening our scope to include underrepresented and gender-diverse individuals allowed us to support a wider spectrum of lived experiences, particularly those excluded from traditional enterprise spaces.
One surprising insight was that the most challenging questions didn’t come from men, but often from other women. This taught us to clearly articulate our “why,” to welcome difficult conversations, and to lead with transparency and shared values.
We’ve also learned to embrace failure as part of the process. Not everything works the first time, but each misstep becomes a moment of reflection and growth. Iteration is part of our DNA.
Flattening traditional hierarchies has also been key. We do not position ourselves or our advisers as the sole experts. The women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs we work with are the experts of their own lives, our role is to guide, support, and listen.
Finally, we’ve grown confident in using inclusive language. Evolving from simply saying “women” to explicitly naming trans women and gender minorities has been crucial. Inspired by organisations like Glasgow Women’s Library, we’ve embraced openness and accountability, even when that meant facing hard questions.
Our advice is to: Stay bold. Stay curious. Listen deeply. And above all, centre people—not just outcomes.
FUTURE PLANS
What's coming?
Key to our future is scaling our community-led approach. We are developing a mobile prototyping pod to bring entrepreneurship tools and design thinking into local communities, particularly areas of urban deprivation, rural and to underrepresented groups, through hands-on, accessible support and peer-led women’s circles. This initiative will empower women to test ideas, build networks, and gain confidence close to home.
We are also expanding cross-institutional collaboration, growing our partnership model with Queen Margaret University and Edinburgh College to reach even more diverse learners, and embedding gender-aware entrepreneurship into curricula, research, and staff development.
In response to growing demand, we are co-creating new pathways for neurodivergent women entrepreneurs, working with Procrastination Station CIC to develop ADHD-inclusive sessions and peer coaching. Our first programme ‘ADHD+Enterprise: Thriving as Neurodivergent Creators and Changemakers’ wraps up in July and plans are in the pipeline to work with partner institutions across Scotland to roll this out to wider audiences.
Simultaneously, we are launching financial confidence and enterprise skills workshops in collaboration with the Young Women’s Movement, tackling the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis through economic empowerment for women and girls age 16-25 In addition we are exploring a partnership with a national social enterprise support agency to look at supporting early stage social entrepreneurs with guidance and links to start up funds to pilot their ideas. 71% of social enterprises in Scotland are led by women so we are keen to explore how best to support new entrants and lean into values-led enterprise building.
Our long-term vision is to embed inclusive, gender-aware entrepreneurship across policy, practice, and culture, creating a resilient support structure that outlives individual projects or funding cycles.
By listening to our community and staying adaptable, the SDG5 Living Lab is evolving into a living and learning ecosystem.
