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With the world being in constant change over the last few years with the pandemic, geopolitical events and climate change is it time to take stock and build some resilience into your business? See what challenges can be turned into opportunities, and allow you to grow and prosper?

Join this event to hear about where the Dairy industry is at currently and heading, what the Digital Dairy Chain can do to support you, where technology is taking us and what expertise and funding is available.

Everyone connected to the Dairy supply chain is welcome; from farmers, to milk processors, cheesemakers, ice-cream manufacturers, agricultural suppliers, hauliers and technology businesses.

A day to be informed, to network and collaborate.

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Subsea Expo is the world’s leading annual subsea exhibition and conference, held annually at P&J Live in Aberdeen, and also includes the industry’s prestigious awards ceremony, the Subsea Expo Awards.

The exhibition and conference are completely free to attend.

The exhibition is a quality-focused event showcasing the capabilities, innovations and cutting-edge technologies of the underwater sectors, with over 185 exhibitors and 6,500 delegates attending the latest show.

The conference runs multiple parallel sessions and attracts a broad range of experts to discuss the challenges facing the industry, new and transformational technologies, digitalisation, clean energy and the path to net zero, among other topics.

The Subsea Expo Awards dinner is an opportunity to join friends, colleagues and peers in celebrating the accomplishments of the industry’s standout individuals and companies and is held at P&J Live in Aberdeen.

Subsea Expo is organised by the Global Underwater Hub.

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Reformulating means looking at changes to your manufacturing process in order to respond to changing market conditions.  This could be with the aim of keeping your costs down or reduce the process, or it could be about repositioning in a new, more profitable market segment.

Earlier in February Allene Bruce from New Nutrition Business, the world’s number one provider of strategic and market insights into the business of food nutrition and health led a webinar, which explored ways to remain competitively priced during the cost of living crisis.

This follow-up webinar on 23 February, will focus on the support available from HIE and partners Interface, SAC Consulting and the Food and Drink Federation Scotland (FDFS). Hear from Carol-Ann Adams from Interface, Alastair Trail from SAC Consulting and Joanne Burns from FDFS about the help on hand.

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The Crover – the world’s first robotic device that ‘swims’ through grains to monitor their condition.

Background

Crover Ltd https://www.crover.tech has developed the world’s first small robotic device, known as a ‘CROVER’, that monitors cereal grains stored in bulk inside grain bins or storage sheds.  The CROVER device can “swim” within the grains and uses on-board sensors to measure local parameters, such as temperature and moisture, to build a full map of the conditions within the grains. Unlike current grain monitoring solutions that measure only one variable and have limited reach, the CROVER’s remote monitoring capabilities provide real-time data across a range of measurements allowing grain storekeepers to identify critical conditions, like hotspots early and maintain quality of the grains through proactive management.

Crover Ltd were a start-up when they initially approached Interface in 2019, they have since grown from two co-founders to 20 employees.

Since 2019 they have secured significant investment, raising over £600k in innovation prizes and grants (including Scottish Enterprise and Innovate UK). They then opened a seed funding round for investors and hit their £150k target.

The Challenges / Solutions

“When we initially met Interface, we didn’t have a specific R&D challenge as we were focused on developing our product inhouse. An obvious area for support would have been in the areas of design and engineering, however, through discussions with Louise, she assessed how our business worked and proposed that we undertake a project with the Scottish Financial Risk Academy (SFRA). The project with the SFRA helped us determine precise financial estimates of the value of Crover data to grain storekeepers and its impact on the grain storage economics. Understanding the financial impacts of Crover’s monitoring capabilities, had wider implications such as being able to quantify monetary value to grain insurers, and the potential to reduce insurance premiums for farmers and grain merchants.” Lorenzo Conti, Co-founder Crover Ltd

Following on from this initial project, one of the main technical challenges Crover Ltd faced related to the precise location tracking of the device within the grain bulk. Conventional signals, such as GPS and WiFi, did not work due to their inability to penetrate the solid grain bulk so a novel approach was required. Crover Ltd had undertaken some initial testing of different solutions, however they needed to tap into academic expertise in ultrasonic waves, positioning systems, electromagnetic signals, wireless sensor network (WSN) and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), to help improve the accuracy of the device location.  Interface connected them to the University of Glasgow who undertook an initial feasibility into a means of measuring and identifying the location of the robotic device in bulk grain storage.  This was initially funded by an Impact Accelerator Account fund of £10k, which then led onto a further project where University of Glasgow and Crover Ltd secured a further £27K to continue the project to a successful conclusion.

Since the initial collaboration Interface has assisted Crover Ltd embark on several other successful collaborations focusing more on the future enhancement and performance improvement of the robotic device, by tapping into design and engineering expertise from several Scottish Academic Institutions.  These involved:

The Benefits

The benefits resulting from the numerous collaborations which Interface have helped broker have undoubtedly helped Crover Ltd in both product development and business growth terms.  Interface has helped open doors for Crover Ltd and helped Lorenzo and his team to establish strong links with academia resulting in some innovative and exciting developments.

Since its inception in 2019 Crover Ltd has grown from 2 employees to over 20 employees, has raised significant investment and secured over £600K in innovation prizes and funding.

Background

Sustainable Thinking Scotland (STS) Community Interest Company is a social enterprise, based in Bo’ness, created to address a wide range of social and environmental issues. They operate a variety of projects that focus on topics such as food growing, community wellbeing and wood and green waste recycling. 

STS currently produce biochar from wood waste. Biochar is a highly porous form of carbon obtained from baking wood within an oxygen-depleted environment and has the potential to draw and lock in nutrients and toxins from its environment. Until recently, the biochar STS produced was used in an agricultural setting, utilising its production as a means of carbon abatement and as a soil amendment within their food growing projects. STS wanted to research and create a biochar optimised for excess nutrient removal from water, helping to tackle harmful algae blooms and the nutrient pollution which causes them.

Challenge

The water remediation techniques STS proposed involving biochar had not been adequately researched, regulated or utilised within the EU, UK and Scottish markets.  STS wanted to engage with academic expertise to advance their production of biochar whilst also ensuring effective regulatory standards were put in place governing its manufacturing and subsequent use.

Solution

The company was referred to Interface through their engagement in Firstport’s LaunchMe accelerator, which is aimed at supporting Scotland’s highest potential social enterprises.  After Interface put out a call to the relevant universities in Scotland, STS decided to work collaboratively with both the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI) and the University of Strathclyde to test biochar production from wood waste and investigate its potential use in nutrient removal. 

A Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher was used to fund the project with UHI, whilst an initial consultancy project with the University of Strathclyde looked at in depth testing of Biochar including thermochemical changes.

The results from this research should help inform SEPA’s (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) decision making on how to license and regulate biochar’s use in water.
 

Benefits

The new/enhanced product to be developed is a biochar which has qualities which allow it to draw in and bind to excess nutrients within water; adsorbing and removing them, resulting in improved water quality. This will provide a new solution to the growing problem of blue-green algae blooms in freshwater and also act to recover phosphorus and nitrogen from water. The biochar will act to stop nutrient pollution at source, preventing algal blooms and eutrophication, whilst creating a recoverable nutrient loaded carbon biochar that can be re-used on land. This would not only act to maintain/provide carbon within soil but would also provide a slow release (nitrogen/phosphorous rich) fertiliser. UHI’s ERI (Environmental Research Institute) already has significant current interests in this area, not least as partners in a €10M+ EU NW Europe Project (Phos4You) which demonstrates phosphate recovery and re-use innovations within Europe.

Benefits to company:

Benefits to academic partners

Benefits to Scottish Government

Despite the rise in recurring algal blooms in water bodies across the UK, biochar field-based water remediation remains absent from the £1.3 billion UK water treatment market.  Biochar technology development will help create a range of safe, low cost, low impact environmental remediation services which are more financially accessible, encouraging landowners and custodians to invest in their greenspaces, offering a comprehensive/easily accessible solution to long term problems; leading to climate action and contributing to Scotland’s net zero targets.

Next Steps

STS have continued to make strides in developing their “Biochar” product and to understand the markets in which they can operate to position themselves as a sustainable social enterprise.   

This initial project has opened the door to further collaboration and research and Interface have assisted STS to embark on other successful collaborations most notably with Adam Smith Business School at University of Glasgow where they have engaged with a range of student programmes from undergraduate to MBA. Projects include:  

Other projects relating to environmental and sustainability issues are under discussion and Sean Kerr STS Director generously gives time to undergraduate and MSc programmes, student placements, and makes himself available for speaking and networking opportunities.  The relationship continues to deepen and in 2022 Dr Nick Quinn, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship in the Business School, joined STS as a Non Executive Director.  

Sustainable Thinking Scotland’s determination and hard work is paying off as they won Innovation of the Year Award at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023. 

Background

Scotland accounts for 70 percent of the UK’s total gin production, which is being largely driven by the growth in craft distilleries, 35 of which have opened in Scotland in less than three years, offering over 100 gin variations. Many distillers produce gin while they wait for whisky to mature.

There is a vast array of botanicals that may be grown in Scotland and therefore a wide palette in terms of flavour and aroma that may be incorporated into Scotland’s distilled products such as gin.

Challenge

The use of local or novel botanicals has become a popular method to create gins with a unique selling point and several members of the Scottish Distillers Association, (SDA – previously called the Scottish Craft Distillers Association), have worked with Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD) on new product development experimenting with botanicals that may be sourced close to their distilling operations.

The recipe development process can be very complex, particularly when working with novel or large numbers of botanicals. To simplify the process, it is useful to distil individual botanicals to determine their flavour and aroma attributes to predict their contribution in the final recipe.

The Botanicals Library was created to address this challenge and reduce the time and cost of recipe development and widening the possible options for botanical choice.

Solution

Originally, Interface supported the partnership between Heriot-Watt University’s world-renowned International Centre for Brewing & Distilling with the Scottish Distillers Association that enabled the development of a unique library of over 40 botanicals grown in Scotland. The initial funding from Interface was supported by R&B Distillers, Strathearn Distillery and Glasgow Distillery Company, representing the Scottish Distillers Association.

Interface supported the further development of the Botanicals library by the ICBD and SDA partnership which allowed extension of the library to include a range of botanicals not cultivated in Scotland, but with significant importance in gin production. The extension to the library was supported by Ncn’ean Distillery (formerly Drimnin Distillery), together with Glenshee Distillers, Glasgow Distillery and Verdant Spirits, representing SDA.

Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling has distilled each botanical individually, assessing the flavour and aroma profile as well as mouth feel. It now features 72 botanicals that can be grown in Scotland, including nettles, lavender, dandelion and chaga fungus, which grows on birch trees.

Today, the Botanicals Library is available for the members of the Scottish Distillers Association to utilise and exploit in their innovation and production of new recipes.

Business benefits

Matthew Pauley, Assistant Professor at the ICBD and a drinks industry consultant, who led on the distillation of all the botanicals, said:

“Our botanical library will help gin producers create Scottish gins with locally available botanicals that are available in dried form, from a sustainable source, to ensure consistency and availability.

“The library enables us to tell producers how a botanical will perform under the conditions used in gin production.

“Several members of the Scottish Distillers Association have already used the botanical library to create new gins. By coming to the lab, they can experiment and explore new flavour palates, with less ‘trial and error’.”

One business which benefited from using the Botanicals Library is Highland Boundary, a craft distillery based in Alyth. Co-founders Marian Bruce and Simon Montador identified a gap in the market for Scandinavian-inspired spirits with the botanicals sourced from local woodlands. Marian Bruce, said:

“By accessing the expertise at Heriot-Watt University we were able to try out different botanicals to produce new flavours of spirit with distinct Scottish flavours reflecting Perthshire’s “big tree country.”

“Now that we have launched our first product, Birch and Elderflower Wild Scottish Spirit, we want to build the company and create employment in an area where manufacturing jobs are few and far between.”

David Wilkinson, Edinburgh Gin’s Head Distiller, said:

“Seaside Gin was the first of our collaborations in partnership with Heriot-Watt University’s Brewing and Distilling MSc course. Such has been the success and popularity of Seaside Gin, we have had to transfer production from the small 150 litre still to our larger 1000 litre still at our second site. We will now be producing 1300 bottles per distillation, with at least 4 distillations per month. Testament to the success of developing and using a fantastic botanicals library resource for the benefit of the industry in Scotland.”

Professor Alan Wolstenholme, Chair of the Scottish Distillers Association, added:

“Over the last few years there have been a large number of Distillery start-ups in Scotland. Whilst several spirits are being successfully produced, the one which has been most prominent has been gin with many new brands achieving a well-regarded status amongst customers whilst raising the profile of the entire sector.”

Academic Benefits

To date, over 30 distilling MSc projects have incorporated use of the library to create new gins and botanical liqueurs which will continue to increase with future projects.

The main impact of the MSc projects and the Botanicals Library has been a reduction in product and process development time so there is less “trial and error” for companies. It has also enabled greater understanding of both the production process and botanical behaviour, which is now included as part of their teaching.

Additional/Key outcomes

The Botanicals Library is a shared resource designed to benefit distillers across Scotland. The collaboration across distinct geographic areas in Scotland has been vital in identifying a broad range of potential botanicals.

Initially developed to help Scotland’s gin producers create unique, new products, the library is now being used to ensure Scottish gin meets the import standards of countries like the USA. Several members of the Scottish Distillers Association have already used the library to create new gins and botanical liqueurs and support export activity.

With 70 percent of the UK’s gin produced in Scotland, and sales expected to hit £1.5 billion by 2020 (according to Scotland Food and Drink), the library is good news for producers who are eyeing the domestic and international markets.

The Botanicals Library team won the Multiparty Collaboration category of the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2019 hosted by Interface.

Background 

W&J Knox Ltd, based in Ayrshire, is the largest UK manufacturer and servicing agent of Aquaculture nets. The company provides cage nets primarily to the salmon farming industry and on a biannual basis they transport the nets back to its servicing facility for washing, repairing and drying before returning them to the fish farm. 

Challenge 

Aquaculture nets have to be washed regularly to remove the marine plants and animals that attach to the netting restricting the flow of water to the fish contained within.  

Washing the commercial fishing nets from the salmon farming industry produces several hundred tonnes per year of a solid material rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, fish oil proteins and calcium from mussel shells and includes copper which is dried into cake. 

Following a referral from North Ayrshire Council, Interface worked with the company to identify suitable academic support to analyse this waste product and suggest a use for the nutrient rich solid cake produced from the process. The ‘cake’ which goes to an approved landfill site may have value in the nutrients contained within it which could be used to create a new product and thus reducing the volume and cost of the material going to landfill.  

Solution 

The School of Applied Sciences at Abertay University were able to support the company due to their experience in handling such waste materials, extraction of bioactive ingredients and quantification of bioactive compounds.  

Through a feasibility study, funded through a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, the university were able to analyse the waste product and its potential use.  

Follow on Activity 

Following the initial feasibility study, a researcher has now been employed by Abertay University, through the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme (KTP), to investigate how the useful materials can be extracted from the waste cakes. Instead of being sent to landfill, tonnes of salvaged protein and oil will now be turned into livestock feed for the likes of fish, pigs and chickens. 

Company benefits

Academic Benefits

Mari Findlay, Business Engagement Executive, Interface: 

“W & J Knox are a fantastic example of a company who thought they had a nutrient rich waste product that could be used in another format as well as helping to reduce landfill. By collaborating with Abertay University on an initial feasibility study they were able to confirm their initial thoughts and progress to a KTP, which will allow them to produce a valuable protein rich animal feed.”

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Highland Boundary is a craft distillery based in Alyth, near Blairgowrie founded by Marian Bruce and Simon Montador who identified a gap in the market for Scandinavian-inspired spirits with the botanicals sourced from local woodlands. The name comes from the geological feature, called the Highland Boundary Fault, on which their farm lies – they have one foot in the Highlands and one in the Lowlands of Scotland. By combining botanicals from the Highlands with grain spirit from the South the company are crafting a new generation of Scottish spirits firmly rooted in the Scottish Landscape.

Challenge

Although both Marian and Simon have significant experience in scientific research and business, they were keen to tap into academic expertise to support the development of their new products.

Solution

Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling expressed an interest in working with the company and Lorna, Interface’s Business Engagement Executive for the Tayside region, introduced the teams.

An MSc student at the university investigated ways of including the woodland botanicals to maximise flavour and consistency.

The project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Standard Innovation Voucher which is administered by Interface.

Business benefits

“By accessing the expertise at Heriot-Watt University we were able to try out different botanicals to produce new flavours of spirit with distinct Scottish flavours reflecting Perthshire’s “big tree country.
Now that we have launched our first product, Birch and Elderflower Wild Scottish Spirit, we want to build the company and create employment in an area where manufacturing jobs are few and far between.” Marian Bruce, Highland Boundary

April 2019 – Highland Boundary Wild Scottish Spirit Awarded Gold at San Francisco World Spirits Competition. 

Academic benefits

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Interface has a strong track record of successfully matching businesses to academics with an overall aim of enabling companies to be more competitive in national or global markets. Innovation can lead to transformation within an industry sector, not only for individual businesses but also for groups of businesses working together to address common challenges.
Many economic reviews, testimonies and new and existing interactions demonstrated that facilitating opportunities for academics to work with groups of companies is an effective way of increasing the impact and reach of innovation on the Scottish economy.
 

Introduction
The Resource Efficiency Industry Advisory Group for Food & Drink (REIAG) was set up in 2012 as a result of a partnership between Interface Food & Drink, Zero Waste Scotland and the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland. The aim was to raise awareness and promote opportunities related to environmental sustainability and to stimulate innovation in the food and drink industry. 
The membership comprises of 25 prominent Scottish food manufacturers of all sizes and food types, from bakers to brewers and fish processors to fruit growers. The group has a flexible structure where members attend meetings and participate in collaborative projects with academic partners depending on the theme and its relevance to their own business challenges. 

Challenge 

The Scottish Government’s new Circular Economy Strategy has set ambitious goals such as the new food waste reduction target. There is a need to change the way things are currently done from developing new processes to changing the culture of the workforce, so innovation is key in meeting these targets. Measures to reduce and reuse energy and waste support companies to improve efficiencies in a sector where in general, prices are remaining competitive but costs are rising. The sector has become increasingly competitive but can’t just rely on developing new products and markets to flourish and achieve the ambitious target of £30bn in revenue for the Scottish food and drink industry by 2030. 

Solution 
The aim of the REIAG is to drive activities which will improve the environmental sustainability of the businesses and the wider industry. This is achieved through delivering innovation projects with academia, learning journeys and by providing a forum for direct interaction between businesses and experts to share best practices in issues such as waste, water and energy efficiency. Companies with a common purpose are encouraged to collaborate around innovation and can gain easy access to academic and business expertise in a nurturing and supportive environment. 

Key outcome
A selection of impactful projects are listed below which have de-risked early stage concepts, providing independent evidence of new ways to enhance the sustainability of the Scottish Food and Drink Industry.

Bacterial removal from recycled water – Shellfish Processors
This project was led by the Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group who collaborated with the University of Edinburgh and the James Hutton Institute to carry out research into the effectiveness of UV lighting to kill bacteria in the wash process and by doing so to increase the number of times the water can be recycled. This has led to a further project using UV and filtration techniques to further enhance the water treatment system.   

Heat recovery
This feasibility project was carried out with one of the large companies in the group and Edinburgh Napier University to recycle heat required in the drying process. By deploying the outputs of the project in house, savings of £600,000 a year are forecasted. In addition, the results were disseminated to the other members of the group to explore the viability and application for their own business. 

Bio-treatability of food industry effluents 
This project was a collaboration with the University of Aberdeen on bio-treatability of waste effluent with six of the companies providing quantitative data and a deeper understanding of what their waste could generate in value whether through anaerobic digestion or other processes. This led to the Scottish Salmon Company winning an Interface Food & Drink competition to undertake more in-depth work with the University assessing viability and return on investment for converting their waste effluent into energy and by-products. The company now have the data to make a commercial decision on investing and integrating the processes across their Scottish operations, which has saved them considerable resource, both staff and financial.   

Business benefits
By working together, groups of companies can share best practice, partner on projects of scale with a broad range of academics and industry experts and access funding that encourages new ways of collaborating.

Les McArthur, Operations Director at Dean’s of Huntly commented:

The group provides an excellent platform to work together, sharing knowledge and experiences which, along with technical expertise brought in by the organisers, allows us to develop and implement new sustainability measures in our businesses and saves us time and money. These measures range from high to very low cost so there is something for every type of business. The merit of being able to meet with your peers is also invaluable as we can discuss and collectively solve issues. Many of the topics covered can then be supported by onsite surveys meaning that only some time needs to be invested to establish if a particular topic can save your business money whilst also becoming more sustainable.

Academic benefits
The benefits for academia gained are also significant, including establishing new areas for research and knowledge exchange, collaboration with other academics across other disciplines and institutions and greater visibility of academia to industry. 

Professor John Currie, Director of the Scottish Energy Centre at Edinburgh Napier University added:

“Edinburgh Napier University and the Scottish Energy Centre have benefited enormously from our involvement in groups such as the Resource Efficiency Industry Advisory Group and the Scottish Craft Distillers Association.  Through Interface, they have provided us with the opportunity to work in collaboration with a variety of companies and bring academic thinking to real-life industry challenges.”