Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and Dundee University Faculty of Life Sciences
On Friday 14th March 2003 Prof John Hillman, Director of the SCRI and Sir Alan Langlands, Principal of Dundee University hosted an informal event at the SCRI Boardroom, Invergowrie to announce the intention of the two bodies to enter into a Joint Strategic Partnership and to celebrate the co-location of four University Research Groups at the SCRI campus. This bold new initiative will have immediate and ongoing impacts on both Tayside's research capabilities and on local economic development.
The University of Dundee and the Scottish Crop Research Institute have agreed to work in partnership to build on existing strengths and to facilitate enhanced future collaboration in research and teaching. The Partnership will aim to add value to both organisations and to their impact in Tayside by: Co-ordinating research development in areas of common interest in order to ensure world leading scientific excellence and harmonisation of the external support for that research, and Providing enhanced facilities for postgraduate and undergraduate courses.
In so doing the Partnership will enable a greater range of opportunities for the spin out and commercialisation of research from both institutions.
The Partnership will pursue this co-operation in both teaching and research over a wide front encompassing molecular ecology, soil microbiology, environmental genomics, mathematical biology, bioinformatics, ethics, food science and healthcare. In this Strategic Partnership the University and the Institute will work towards the realisation of a shared vision for research, teaching, training and company formation in these areas of science.
A joint Steering Group, reporting to the Governing Body of each institution, will be responsible for taking forward the aims of the Partnership.
As the first stage in this evolving Partnership the SCRI and University Faculty of Life Sciences have integrated their research in Plant Science. The expertise in plant biology, environmental, and microbiological disciplines within SCRI represents a major international resource that is unrivalled and unavailable in most British Universities. The future development of the Division of Environmental and Applied Biology within the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University will be linked to that of SCRI in a medium to long term relationship. Professor Geoff Gadd, Head of the Division, stated "this is an extremely positive development for both institutions and will greatly enhance the profile of environmental research in the area". As a first stage in this relationship, four members of the University staff John Raven, Claire Halpin, Andy Flavell and Hamlyn Jones, along with their respective research groups have relocated to the SCRI campus. This will result not only in individual scientific benefit to the relocated groups but it will also create an enhanced critical mass of plant research with immediate access to the outstanding core research facilities at SCRI. The resultant synergy between the various scientists will raise the impact, research income and profile of plant sciences in Scotland.
The move will also assist the rationalisation of space and resources at the University and this has enabled the University to progress the recently announced £20m building project in Life Sciences. The scientific, teaching and commercialisation developments that will result from this type of co-location will also contribute to the ambitious plans of SCRI to develop an £100m Science Park at their campus.
Future directions for this new Partnership are likely to include:
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk