The Scottish Alliance for Food SCAF annual Conference takes place on 19th August. This will be a hybrid event, with the option of joining online.
Location: Advanced Research Centre, Glasgow / Online
Date & Time
Conference: Monday 19th August 2024, 9.15-17.15 (networking until 18.30).
Unconference: Tuesday 20th August, 10.00 – 13.00
Programme:
09.15 – 10.30 SESSION 1: Welcome, Keynote and SCAF updates
10.30 – 11.15 Coffee break, Poster presentations and networking
11.15 – 12.45 SESSION 2: Oral presentations (SCAF pump priming projects and short communications)
12.45 – 13.45 Lunch, posters, and networking
13.45 – 15.00 SESSION 3: Oral presentations (SCAF pump priming projects and short communications)
15.00 – 15.45 Coffee break, posters, and networking
15.45 – 17.15 SESSION 4: Cross-disciplinary collaboration (Panel discussion, horizon scanning, and opportunities in SCAF)
Howell Davies, Head of Strategic Programmes and Funding, at Interface will be attending this event.
The University of Glasgow, in collaboration with Scottish Enterprise, Innovate UK, the Scottish Government, and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) are putting on an exciting in-person networking and information event to promote the collaborative research and innovation opportunities that Horizon Europe has to offer. Discover how Horizon Europe has transformed ideas into successful projects across various sectors, and how yours could be next.
Horizon Europe is the world’s largest Research and Innovation (R&I) programme, with a budget of over £82bn. The programme runs from 2021 to 2027, and it is open to all types of R&I organisations, including large businesses, SMEs, academia, public institutions and third sector organisations.
The UK has historically been one of the best performers in European Research and Innovation Framework Programmes, and on average successful UK applicants to Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 receive around £450,000 although this figure could be much higher. A key part of Horizon Europe is building consortia with partners around the world, particularly now that UK entities can lead projects.
Howell Davies, Interface’s Head of Strategic Programmes and Funding, will be speaking at this event on “How do you define Innovation for the Food & Drink Sector?”
Back as the headline event of Glasgow Tech Week, Glasgow Tech Fest is a must-attend event for the tech, digital, and creative communities in Glasgow and beyond. Glasgow Tech Fest will bring together visionary founders, seasoned leaders, insightful investors, ecosystem champions, and experts to connect, network, and share ideas and learnings in a day of keynotes, panels, and fireside chats.
Learn from industry experts and gain practical knowledge with this year’s themes:
- Investing in the future
- Developing inclusive and collaborative ecosystems
- Scale and Growth
- Entrepreneurial journeys
- Breaking barriers
Opening keynote launching Glasgow Tech Fest is the incredible Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock from BBC’s The Sky at Night! Stay tuned as more additions to the agenda are announced, guaranteed to be the ultimate tech event in Scotland!
A showcasing and knowledge sharing event focussed on international development research in Scotland.
The Scottish Funding Council and the University of Glasgow invite you to a workshop and networking event focussed on international development research in Scotland. This event brings together researchers and research professionals from Scottish HEIs and research institutes to showcase their international development research successes, facilitate knowledge sharing across institutions and funders, and identify opportunities for collaborative international development work.
Venue and Programme
Taking place at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre, the event will include:
- Scene setting on international development research in Scotland with funders and key sector stakeholders. Confirmed attendees include the Scottish Government, the Scottish Funding Council, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Wellcome, FCDO and UKRI.
- Institutional Research Briefings – A chance for each attending institution to highlight their international development research portfolios. If appropriate, we welcome information sharing on use of ISPF ODA funding to bolster activity.
- Lunchtime Poster Session – Taking place in a publicly-accessible venue, a showcase of the depth and breadth of Scotland’s international development research activity and an opportunity to create new connections between individuals and teams. Early Career Researchers are particularly encouraged to submit a poster.
- Break-out discussions – Interactive discussion and feedback session focussed on how Scottish institutions can be collaborating more effectively on international development research.
A final agenda and additional details will be circulated to registered attendees.
This event will take place fully in-person, however the plenary sessions will be recorded and made available at a later date for those unable to attend in person.
Hosted by the Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM), this conference event showcases the innovative processes and outcomes from over 40 collaborative student team projects through a series of presentations.
As well as providing a platform for our students’ industry-related output, academics will highlight opportunities and mechanisms for industry to work collaboratively with us in the future.
Registration will take place from 08.45 and the event will close at 14.30.
Who should attend?
- Industrialists collaborating in DMEM industrial projects.
- Industrialists interested in finding out more about DMEM and collaborative opportunities.
- Interface and knowledge exchange professionals.
- Academic staff in the areas of design, manufacture and engineering management.
- Senior undergraduate and postgraduate students.
“The power of ideas” is an invitation to the curious, the innovators, and all who seek inspiration to achieve a better world. It is a day designed to inspire anyone interested in the power of new ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship to change the world.
It transcends the typical conference – staging a tribute to the visionaries, the creative minds, the thinkers, and the creators – the individuals thriving within our academic and industry circles and those who’ve journeyed from distant shores to share their light with us.
Guided by the minds that shape tomorrow, we will discuss how research and ideas can blossom into tangible, transformative real-world applications for a better future.
The event organised by Converge will explore the exciting worlds of AI, net zero, data science, and life sciences, charting a course towards a brighter tomorrow.
Join ETP for a dynamic exploration of Scotland’s ground-breaking innovations to enable and accelerate the energy transition. This event brings together leaders and game-changers, developing innovative solutions and initiatives from private, public, and academic sectors. The Showcase will explore the continuing challenges at the forefront of decarbonisation, green hydrogen production, and renewable energy generation, and showcase the emerging solutions and enabling technologies which have risen to tackle some of these challenges.
The format of the day will include Keynote Speeches by Energy Transition Leaders, a Panel Session on Steps to accelerate energy transition innovation in Scotland, Challenge Clinics – Energy Transition, Circular Green Economy, Enabling Technologies and Supply chain, etc. Discussions with industry and public sector representatives highlighting challenges and initiatives and an Exhibition Showcase by Scottish companies of the Energy Innovation Projects, currently going on.
Learn more and register
In January 2024, CPI is convening pharma partners, industry, funding
agencies, regulators and, most importantly, innovators for three days of discussion
around technological challenges faced by the industry.
The event will occur over 3 days, with each day covering a different area:
16th January 2024: Sustainability
17th January 2024: New Modalities
18th January 2024: Digital
Innovators, including established SMEs, recent university spin-outs, and academics are invited to showcase their technology at the event in a short pitch
session — an opportunity to give a brief overview of the technology and highlight
its potential applications and impact on pharmaceutical manufacturing.
As an innovator, you will receive valuable feedback on your technology from the
industry and funding body experts, and understand the opportunities for your
technology, the risks to adoption, and existing gaps.
For more information on this event, please follow the button below.
Background
Therme Group is an industry leader in the wellbeing sector with multiple major water-based wellbeing facilities throughout Europe with new facilities in the UK and Canada under construction.
Therme’s guiding philosophy is “Wellbeing for all” which delivers a holistic approach to wellbeing and includes a social outreach dimension to make the facilities available to all of the community in the city regions where they have sites. This holistic approach encompasses the aesthetics and design of the built environment, the impact of the water based, and other wellbeing treatments offered and extends to nutrition and the sources of food offered on site.
Therme UK has plans to open a major new £125M facility on the Clyde serving as the regional centre in Scotland to deliver Therme UK’s 90:90 UK access strategy. This seeks to position Therme facilities such that 90% of the UK population are within 90 minutes’ drive of a Therme facility.
The Challenge
Therme Group have five main guiding principles and areas of focus around which they build their business model and facilities. These are Health, Equity, Security, Learning and Environment. In each case they are interested in strategic research partners that can help Therme as a group deliver improved operational delivery, minimise environmental impact and ultimately improve customer experience.
They have developed subject specific strategic research & development (R&D) relationships with the University of Florence for the built environment and in Scotland they have supported research activity in the University of Glasgow and James Hutton Institute (Dundee) developing frameworks of wellbeing and food technology respectively.
The collaboration facilitated by Interface came about from the combination of a planned major facility in Glasgow and the recognition of the strength in the University of Glasgow in four key areas of research, Wellbeing Research, Informing Policy, Wellbeing Technology and Environmental Technology directly relevant to Therme’s long term needs. This led to a feasibility study, supported by Interface, which provided an evidence base for exploring the creation of a global Centre of Wellbeing Research Excellence (WellEX) in Glasgow.
The Solution
Interface made initial introduction and discussions between Therme Group and the University of Glasgow who successfully applied to the Inward investment Catalyst Fund to support a WellEX feasibility.
The basis of the feasibility study was to raise awareness of the opportunity and develop connections between senior management at the Therme Group responsible for Innovation and the relevant Business, Social Science, Health and Technology academics and departments within the University. In particular, the feasibility exercise and subsequent discussions identified four areas of future collaboration where Therme’s interests and the University of Glasgow’s expertise aligned.
These included:
Wellbeing innovations: Therme Group is primarily interested in understanding how wellbeing improvement can be brought about for individuals and populations, and the broader benefits of wellbeing on society, the economy, and the environment through evidence-based research.
Informing policy: Through close collaboration with the local government and communities, the research conducted by WellEX is expected to support the work of the University of Glasgow to explore, validate, and inform wellbeing strategies and policies at the local and national levels, working to understand the complexity of policy intervention.
Wellbeing technology: To explore, develop and test “wellbeing technology” focused on improving the effects of wellbeing innovations and users’ experience within and outside Therme Group sites.
Sustainability practices: To explore and validate sustainability practices for Therme wellbeing activities and facilities to leverage renewable energy sources and reduce carbon emissions.
The feasibility study validated the concept of a Global Centre of Excellence, providing an evidence base for a Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funding application in 2022 and ongoing funding applications.
The findings showed that the University of Glasgow was well placed to both anchor and act as an international R&D hub for Therme’s aspirations to develop a world-class centre of excellence in wellbeing. The planned development of a major new facility in Glasgow, serving the Scottish population catchment area, offers a unique opportunity to create such a WellEX and capture the significant research, societal and economic benefits this would bring to Scotland.
The University of Glasgow are commited to developing this proposition further and presenting a full business case for consideration by Therme Group, the University, and strategic partners such as Glasgow City Council and Scottish Government agencies, including Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Scottish Development International (SDI), and Scottish Enterprise (SE).
The Benefits
- Validated the concept of a Global Centre of Excellence to be based in Glasgow, providing an evidence base for a BEIS funding application in 2022 and ongoing funding applications.
- Development of a much deeper relationship with Therme Group as partners on wellbeing which can be developed further as the new Glasgow facility is built.
- Development of a cross disciplinary working group in Glasgow in response to Therme’s interest and catalyzed by the Interface report. This cross disciplinary group is currently developing funding applications around the theme of healthy ageing.
- Potential to generate a strategic new initiative at the institutional level by encouraging the University of Glasgow for the first time to carry out a strategic review of all its wellbeing research strengths across all disciplines for Therme Group as a serious industrial partner.
- The WellEX initiative has the potential to generate significant new jobs and economic activity in Glasgow, provisionally estimated between 10-20 net additional FTEs.
- This collaborative research also aligns well with the developing Wellbeing Economy policy of the Scottish Government.
This project benefitted from the Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund. The Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund launched by Interface and the Scottish Government promotes Scotland as a leading destination for inward investment and supports businesses not yet located in Scotland but seeking to establish stronger ties with academia here. As well as funding research and development it provides an opportunity for the company to establish relationships and give insight into other aspects of the Scottish landscape, such as further investment opportunities, supply chains and the skills base to strengthen the case for investing in Scotland.