Discover the new Agri Hub on Easter Bush Campus
An introduction to the new Agri-Tech Hub, part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal for Data-Driven Innovation (DDI).
The event on Tuesday 26th November was led by Val Hughes-White, RIC & Agritech Innovation Director and was hosted at Roslin Innovation Centre where guests learned how the new Agri-Tech Hub on Easter Bush Campus has evolved, as well as the exciting opportunities for future growth, collaboration, innovation and talent building.
This new space for innovation, with a focus on the A3 sector - Animal Health, Agri-Tech and Aquaculture, incorporates newly developed office and meeting space, aka the Moss Zone, and is located on the ground floor of the Charnock Bradley Building.
Agri-Hub ‘Moss Zone, Roslin Innovation Centre
Val provided us with insight to the background, current and future activity within the Agri-Tech Hub which involves staff and students from across the Easter Bush Campus and the wider University, and also to the recently remodelled Agri Field Station, offering agri research space and located off-site on the nearby Dryden Farm.
The Hub integrates research, specialist facilities, entrepreneurs and companies in the heart of the research and innovation on the campus as a result of £380 million investment from the University and external sources as part of the A3 National Hub, and a BBSRC UK Research and Innovation Campus (the only one in Scotland), Innovate UK funding and Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal funding for Data Driven research, innovation and education.
Roslin innovation Centre on Easter Bush Campus
With the focus on Ag-Bio, a sub-sector of Agri-Tech, to reduce animal disease this sector makes a huge contribution to the economy through protein production for an ever growing population reducing GHG emissions. The importance of One Health research has gained recognition following the Covid 19 outbreak, highlighting zoonotic diseases and the transmission of these between animals and humans.
The Hub is the agri-tech innovation destination for public, private and third sectors and has been set 15 year targets and delivery expectations under the themes of talent, research, adoption, entrepreneurship and inclusive growth.
Five year targets have been met and were exceeded despite Covid interruptions, this includes 21 new companies being formed (target of 30 in 15 years). An example of such success is the FAST Programme which helped form three new companies, two of which are current tenants of Roslin Innovation Centre.
BBSRC Innovation Awards for industry has created collaborative activity with placements from industry and into industry, as well as interactions between members. The Campus Innovation Account has allowed a company to pilot activity and explore new territories; Rhizocore Technologies, an applied mycology company, focused on using fungi to solve environmental challenges is now working in such a collaboration to increase the nutritional value of spent chicken litter fertiliser and limiting local pollution from poultry farms.
Agri-tech talent on Campus has been delivered through MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) which are free and open to anyone to participate in, delivering a wealth of online knowledge on production, consumption and human health leading to income generation and collaborative working across the University.
The success of agri-tech is beneficial to all of Midlothian Science Zone and our Partner Science Parks offer different space and facilities with the combined benefit of community, support and facilitation of introductions. Availability of space, particularly lab space, is the biggest problem but businesses naturally flow from one site to another depending on their stage of growth and discussions during the Forum highlighted this collaborative nature within the zone.
The purpose of MSZ Business Forum is to create an opportunity for discussion, collaboration and awareness of other businesses 'in the zone'.
If you would like to be notified of future MSZ Business Forum Events or to present at one of our events, please contact Emma McCallum, Project Coordinator.
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To find out more about research, expertise or business support 'in the zone', and to be kept informed of forthcoming events or opportunities for collaboration, please email Emma McCallum, MSZ Project Coordinator.