Smarter about rural animal health

Announced in November 2017, the partnership between SRUC and MRI will drive innovation, increase productivity and create opportunities for growth by meeting national and international challenges.

The partnership will initially be composed of two key areas:

• Collaborative Research Projects
• Shared Facilities for Veterinary Services 

SRUC Principal and Chief Executive, Professor Wayne Powell and Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Scientific Director of the Moredun Research Institute and Chief Executive of the Moredun Foundation

To support the partnership, MRI and SRUC Veterinary Services teams will share new purpose built laboratories on the MRI’s Pentlands Science Park, near Edinburgh. Once the move is complete in January 2019, the reconfigured laboratories will be the home of the SRUC Veterinary Services analytical laboratories and allow them to work closely with colleagues in MRI. This will be of particular benefit for Scottish Government’s Animal Disease Surveillance Programme.

Principal and Chief Executive of SRUC Prof Wayne Powell said; “The shared space and vision created by our strengthened partnership with MRI is already leading to new ideas and new approaches. Over many years we have been working closely to translate the lessons learned from disease surveillance into research initiatives that have led to improved approaches to diagnostics and then completed the circle by enhancing surveillance. Collaboration is key to the future of the sector at home and internationally.”

“The new approach to the analytical services creates critical scientific and intellectual mass, develops economies of scale and promotes investment in state-of-the-art, high precision technology that best serves the needs of Scotland’s livestock and other farming industries.”

Teams from SRUC and MRI are now sharing the laboratories. Over the summer, two of the SRUC Veterinary Services disease surveillance teams - Microbiology and Histopathology - made the move to the new diagnostic facilities.

The rest of the Veterinary Services Analytical Teams will make the move to Pentlands Science Park, from the nearby Bush Estate, in early 2019.

If you would like to know more about the partnership please download brochure PDF