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New funding for supporting women into aquaculture
A total of £50,000 is being invested to help increase the number of women working in Scottish aquaculture.
The funding will deliver a mentoring scheme to support women already working in the sector to develop their careers, and a website to promote aquaculture and job opportunities to women.
The Scottish Government will provide £20,000 to Women in Scottish Aquaculture (WiSA), with a further £30,000 of industry sponsorship. In 2018 only 11% of salmon farm workers and 15% of shellfish farm workers were women.
SRSL's high-tec sea ice measuring devices will be used in largest -ever Arctic expedition
Scientists taking part in the largest-ever Arctic expedition will use technology developed by SAMS Research Services Ltd (SRSL), to measure sea ice melting.
The German Research Vessel Polarstern has arrived in the Arctic where it will lock itself in the sea-ice and drift for an entire year. Hundreds of scientists will visit the ship in that time to use it as a base from which to study the climate.
As part of the research activity, polar scientists will deploy up to 18 hi-tech devices, developed by SRSL, known as Sea Ice Mass Balance Arrays (SIMBA), which can remotely measure the location, thickness and the melting rate of sea ice.
New investment enables expansion for European Centre for Marine Biotechnology business
CuanTec Ltd, the blue biotech company based in Motherwell and Oban, has completed an investment round with Sky Ocean Ventures and Scottish Enterprise that will enable them to process at pilot production scale and finalise their formulations. The investment will also create new jobs at the CuanTec lab at the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology at the EMSP on the outskirts of Oban.
CuanTec Ltd extracts chitin from shellfish waste. Using a clean, energy-efficient method, they then convert this chitin into chitosan, which is used to manufacture an antimicrobial, compostable bio-plastic, directly addressing the problems of plastic pollution and food waste in the world.
EMSP business backed by Sky Ocean Ventures
It is widely reported that up to 120 million tonnes of plastics are reaching the oceans every year. This March, Sky announced an impact investment fund, Sky Ocean Ventures, to support early stage businesses and start-ups working on scalable solutions to this growing threat to the environment. Oceanium, based at the European Marine Science Park, is one of 10 successful projects to benefit from this new funding.
How important is aquaculture going to be for future generations?
The BBC Alba 'Trusadh' documentary, 'Toradh na Mara' explores the challenges of creating a balance between Scotland's ever growing aquaculture industry and the environment.
The programme is available on BBC iPlayer for a limited amount of time.
Worth a watch - you may even see some well-kent faces, as a number of Argyll aquaculture businesses and research projects are featured.
See below for the link.
Scottish Aquaculture Sector at Aqua Nor, Trondheim, August 20, 21
The Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) has managed to secure a stand at the heavily over-subscribed aquaculture exhibition, Aqua Nor, Trondheim, Norway on August 20 and 21. This is an important meeting place for the aquaculture industry takes place very second year. It is the world’s largest aquaculture technology exhibition, with attendance from worldwide fish farmers, suppliers, researchers and officials.
Minister for Energy, Connectivity & the Islands Visits EMSP business
ALIenergy was delighted to host a visit by Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands, at Malin House on 9th July.
Research & Innovation Chief visits EMSP
Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) visited the European Marine Science Park and SAMS on 30 May. He toured the facilities and met academics from the University of the Highlands & Islands partnership and senior managers from Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE).
