The FTP conference will gather together policymakers and stakeholders from the forest-based sector to discuss future trends and how the key policy framework, such as the Bioeconomy Strategy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will shape the innovation needs of the forest-based sector in Europe.

The conference will contribute to shaping the FTP Vision 2040 -  the future role of the forest bioeconomy in Europe - in view of the next EU budget and Horizon Europe. 

This event aims to help join up thinking across sectors. The tendency to silo our contributions to environmental policies leads us to push for solutions that may cause challenges elsewhere, or not solve wider issues. It is time to realise that everything is connected.

The one-day conference will address how climate change, soil and water quality, biodiversity loss, food production and waste, packaging and packaging waste, energy policies and health, are inextricably linked. In this complex nexus of policies, investments, consumer behaviour, industrial strategy and public health, we will also look at how innovation can improve life quality and provide a range of cross-sector solutions, whilst stimulating investments and employment in cutting edge industries in the UK. With this event, we aim to feed into policies on resources and waste, the bioeconomy, the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Industrial Strategy and the Clean Growth Strategy.

This is a call to action for the implementation of readily-available solutions to halt the rapid advance of climate change and global pollution. We must act immediately to change the paradigm from our current business-as-usual approach to one that stimulates disruptive innovation and enhances environmental protection.

To build on the success of its previous conferences, the directors of the SSIA announce the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association's second Annual Conference, which will take place again in Oban, in November.

The SSIA is a forum for all industry voices, and people with any interest in this emerging sector are welcome to register and participate.

Scottish Seaweed Industry (Scotland) Ltd
3rd Annual Conference. Wednesday 14th November 2018. Oban.
Registration: 9.30. Lunch 1-2.30 p.m. Close: 5 p.m.

Speakers Confirmed so far:

Keynote Speaker: Fergus Ewing, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy

Peter Elbourne, New Wave Foods: Sustainable Hand Harvesting Practices, Biomass Surveys and Monitoring

Kate Burns, Managing Director, Islander Kelp Ltd: The Realities of Farming and Marketing Kelp in Europe, A Private Sector Perspective.

Isla McCulloch, Soil Association: Opportunities for Organic Seaweed.

Dr Matt Wilcox, Newcastle University: Health benefits – title to follow.

Professor Jeff Pearson, Newcastle University: Title to follow.

Rebekka Varne, Aquaculture Adviser, County Council Administration

Møre og Romsdal: Aquaculture Act and Cultivation of Seaweed in Norway

Frode Hovland, County Council Administration, Sogn og Fjordane: Management of

Mechanical and Hand harvesting of seaweed in Norway

Alex Adrian, Crown Estate Scotland: Summary and closing comments.

More Speakers will be added once confirmed.

The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) will be holding a sister event on 15th November.

Join the circulation list.

Businesses in Scotland are taking significant steps to improve or reduce their impact on the environment, often saving money in the process. The VIBES - Scottish Environment Business Awards are held each year to recognise and showcase best practice.

The awards aim to encourage the efficient use of resources, enhance the competitiveness of businesses, improve environmental performance and support the wider goals of sustainable development including social benefits through community and staff involvement.

The VIBES - Scottish Environment Business Awards are given a high profile ceremony at the end of the year, providing a valuable opportunity to have the success of your business widely recognised. The awards are RSA accredited, which means that winners are considered for the prestigious European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE) that are held every two years.

Interface is going on the road to showcase how collaborating with Scotland's world-class universities and research institutes can encourage, initiate and drive innovation amongst businesses. These partnerships can often lead to new products, services and process; with businesses recording reduced operating costs, increased productivity, profits, export, turnover, and new or safeguarded employment.

Interface gets the right people together to make the greatest impacts!

This event is one of a series that is being held around Scotland this autumn as part of The Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards. The Awards, which will take place in February 2019, will celebrate the most innovative and successful business-academic collaborations that are happening now across Scotland.

Join us to hear about some of these exciting projects and learn from some of our successful collaborators.  Speakers include:

• Gregorie Marshall, Managing Director at Peacock Salt - Peacock Salt, based in Ayrshire, are the largest distributor of salt products in the UK. They have worked with Interface on several successful collaborations with Scotland’s universities to help develop their range of products and are currently collaborating on a further two new products with academia.

• Stuart Speake, Founder and CEO of Soltropy Ltd - The Glasgow‐based company has had a long-term collaborative relationship with Heriot-Watt University developing their solar thermal systems. From an initial Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher award, the company has gone on to secure additional funding from the Energy Technology Partnership Consultancy Fund, Innovate UK, and is a Scottish Edge Higgs Award winner.

"Interface has helped immensely with my journey from my initial idea to a validated tested product. They were the initial help in partnering us up with academia to help in taking it from this idea, through software modelling and then actual lab and onsite testing.  I can honestly say that without Interface I doubt that my innovation would have gotten off the ground" said Stuart after winning the Sustained Partnership Award at the 2016 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards.

Who knows, maybe you’ll be a future Scottish Knowledge Exchange Award winner!
The event is free to attend.  Registration will be from 9:30am with the event starting at 10:00am.  The event will end at 12 noon, with a networking lunch until 1:00pm.

This event is being held In partnership with the University of Strathclyde Advanced Materials Research Laboratory and Marks & Clerk.

The Lifestars Awards bring together over 500 life science leaders, investors and deal makers, and is a celebration of the success stories, innovations, transformational deals and the people, teams and organisations that play such a critical role in the advancement of the industry over the last 12 months.

Lifestars is run in association with Jefferies, on the evening of the LSX (formerly known as Biotech and Money) and Jefferies Inv€$tival Showcase on 13 November. It forms the signature, evening networking function during the Jefferies Annual Healthcare Conference in London, Europe's largest healthcare investment banking conference.

19 highly coveted awards will be presented during the evening ceremony, centred around a champagne reception, gala dinner and a celebration of the winners

In collaboration with colleagues from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS), the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) and our academic partners from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS-UHI), IBioIC are hosting an “Exploring Opportunities in Blue Biotech and Aquaculture,” workshop in Oban on 13th November 2018.

As well as giving an overview of the business and funding support available to companies operating in the space or those seeking partners from these sectors, this event will provide a taster of the current research and world class marine biotech expertise available in Scotland. Companies will be encouraged to present short pitches giving a snapshot of their businesses and areas where they may be seeking innovation support.

The workshop will round-up with a networking session aiming to promote academic-to-business and business-to-business collaborations, as well as identifying opportunities for funding, consortia building and value chain development.

IBioIC look forward to holding the first in a series of quarterly workshops in collaboration with partners at Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Scotland’s life sciences strategy has mapped out a pathway to create an £8 billion turnover industry by 2025, based on innovation, quality and collaboration. This significant industry conference will examine what progress has been made towards that ambitious target. Will the refreshed skills strategy help to deliver the constant stream of talent needed by a growing sector, and how is positive collaboration with the NHS opening up new markets for life sciences businesses large and small?

What issues are keeping those small businesses awake at night? Where do they find the right people – and the funding – to grow? Is sufficient finance available for innovative companies looking to scale up dramatically? How can they get into export markets – and more generally, how can they market their products and services effectively to find new customers?

Also, let’s remember Scotland doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Life sciences is a global sector, so what are the social, economic and geopolitical trends impacting on the industry – and where does Scotland fit in to that global picture? Where is the life sciences industry in Scotland especially strong and where should it focus its energies?

This event will hear from high-quality industry leaders about the positive progress made and from a range of experts on what life sciences businesses need to do to move onto the next level. It is a conference for the whole life sciences community to find out where we are doing well, where more needs to be done and how that community can come together to make it happen.

This conference builds on the success of the 2017 event, bringing Scotland’s life sciences community together to make connections, discuss challenges and find solutions.

Join the debate to help shape the future of life sciences in Scotland – by moving forward together to the £8 billion target.

Confirmed speakers include:

Catherine Calderwood
Chief Medical Officer for Scotland

Dave Tudor
Vice-President, GSK

David Scott
Senior Director, Tepnel Pharma Services

About the event
This conference builds on the success of the 2017 event, bringing Scotland’s life sciences community together to make connections, discuss challenges and find solutions.

Be part of the conversation to help shape the future of life sciences in Scotland. Key themes that will be discussed include:

What progress has been made towards the £8 billion turnover target by 2025?
How does the investment climate look for life sciences in Scotland?
What are the potential implications of Brexit on life sciences in Scotland?
What is the UK and global context?
Are we rising to the challenge of delivering the skilled people we need?

Visit the conference website for more details.

Pilots4U will be hosting a series of workshops during Autumn 2018 to discuss the state of the European open-access pilot and demonstration infrastructure for the bioeconomy. In the workshops, Pilots4U will present the results from the gap analysis, which we have been working on for the last few months, and we will ask for your expert opinion on the matter.

Pilots4U has set up one easily accessible database of open-access pilot and demonstration infrastructure for the European bioeconomy. The project also carried out an online survey to understand the equipment and related services required by (potential) users of open-access pilot facilities. By comparing the established database with the survey results, Pilots4U is currently performing a gap analysis to understand where the EU may have over/under capacity and vulnerabilities now and in the near future. These results will be the initial point for discussion during the workshop and the basis for investment business cases to improve and strengthen the European landscape of pilot and demonstration facilities. This interactive workshop will bring together industry, researchers and experts from pilot plants to discuss the state of the European open-access pilot and demonstration infrastructure for the bioeconomy. It will also examine the different opportunities to improve service delivery and interconnection between open-access facilities.

The fourth workshop will take place on the 7th of November 2018 from 13-5:15pm at Sheraton Airport Hotel, Brussels, Belgium as a satellite event of Pitch perfect and boost the European bio-economy.