Innovation

A pioneering dairy farm in south west Scotland has made 25 years of soil data freely available on their website with a request to scientists to include more practical farming experience in their research.

Festival UK* 2022 has announced that applications are open for a unique and pioneering £3 million funded research & development (R&D) opportunity.

The Scottish Government and Lantra Scotland are looking for tech companies to support their efforts to recover and rebuild the nation, by taking part in a CivTech Programme challenge.

An island described as “Scotland in miniature” could help serve as a blueprint for Scottish agriculture to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Farmers on the Isle of Arran are working together to try to reduce their carbon footprint using AgreCalc – an SAC Consulting tool to benchmark and measure methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.

Culture Perth and Kinross Libraries are utilising the 3D printers bought as part of their Rural Perth and Kinross LEADER funded project, Digital Maker_Spaces, to help print headframes and stiffeners for the NHS.

Two young people who took part in the 2019 Rural Youth Project Ideas Festival in Lanarkshire were inspired by the event to host a Rural Youth Leadership Forum in Brussels.

Having met at the Rural Youth Project's festival, Russ Carrington and Ffion Storer Jones coordinated an event in Brussels on 29 January to provide a platform for individuals and organisations to discuss rural youth leadership across Europe. 

Scotland’s Rural Innovation Support Service is now two years old, and is already establishing itself as a useful way to enable rural businesses to adapt to change.

Its farmer-led and open-ended approach makes it different to traditional advisory services. Providing a facilitator whose job it is to get the right people together to explore a rural business idea, and keep that group going, creates time and space for the idea to evolve into a concrete project plan.

Scottish Forestry has launched a new spatial data hub providing access to information helpful to foresters, land managers, developers, teachers, students, researchers and others. 

The Open Data hub offers 70 geospatial data sets and is downloadable for use in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

An upcoming Scottish Rural Action conference will kick start a 'rural movement' to make rural Scotland's voice heard.

Representatives from rural Scotland's communities, businesses and organisations are invited to attend the free event taking place from 26 to 27 February at New Lanark Visitor Centre, the renowned world heritage site.