News
Earth Blox funding tackles climate risks to business
Earth Blox, an Edinburgh-based environmental risk company, has secured new funding to help businesses understand how they are impacted by loss of nature and climate change.
PXN Ventures, which grew out of Par Equity, has led a £6m funding round with support from Scottish Enterprise, Archangels and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Source: Daily Business
Farmland birds in Scotland decline over past decade, report shows
A new report on Scotland’s breeding birds shows that all farmland species have decreased over the past ten years.
The NatureScot report highlights that while woodland and pastoral bird numbers remain higher than 1994 levels, arable and wet farmland bird populations are now lower than a decade ago.
Source: STV News
Native Scottish species under threat from disease and warming climate
Wildcats, puffins and trees such as the European Ash will be under critical threat without greater conservation measures, according to a “genetic scorecard” developed by scientists across Scotland.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh and NatureScot have led the development of the most comprehensive analysis yet of the genetic health of Scotland’s native wild species.
Source: The Scotsman
Dog food accounts for 1% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, study finds
Dog food accounts for 1% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to research that found wet, raw and meat-rich products were associated with substantially higher emissions than dry kibble.
Source: The Guardian
Hub to aid precision breeding of future farm animals
Edinburgh experts will receive almost £5 million to establish a new hub at the University’s Roslin Institute, based at the Easter Bush campus, to drive advances in engineering biology – a major innovation focus for the UK Government.
The hub will focus on research to identify and study small changes to DNA in animals to advance sustainable agriculture and control diseases.
Project to restore 'vital' seagrass around Scotland
A £2.4m seagrass planting programme has been launched to help restore the plant in seas around the north of Scotland.
The project aims to plant 14 hectares (34.6 acres) of seagrass, often described as a "wonder plant" by conservationists, over the next three years.
Source: BBC
Peatlands project to tackle greenhouse gas emissions
A major new project has been launched to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands.
SRUC is the UK lead in the EU-funded Horizon Europe project 'Socio-Economic and Climate and Environmental Aspects of Paludiculture' (Paludi4all) – the productive use of wet and rewetted peatlands.
New vertical farm a first for Scottish education
SRUC has stepped up its commitment to global and local food production and security by becoming the first higher education institution in Scotland to open a commercial-sized vertical farm.
Jim Fairlie MSP, Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, officially opened the £1.8 million SRUC Vertical Farming Innovation Centre – which has received £200,000 from the Scottish Government – at the Edinburgh Campus of Scotland’s Rural College.
‘Cool Calf’ could help accelerate dairy journey to net zero
Hilda may look like an ordinary calf, but the sprightly, Scotland-born animal represents an historic moment for the world’s longest-running livestock genetics project and could help accelerate the dairy industry’s journey to net zero.
Why birth of IVF calf Hilda in Scotland is being hailed as a milestone for greener farming
Vets working on a project to breed more environmentally-friendly cows have described as “hugely significant” the birth of a calf using IVF, saying it could accelerate the dairy industry’s journey to net zero.
The calf, named Hilda, is part the Dumfries-based Langhill Herd, which has been a source of data for the UK dairy industry for more than half a century.
Source: The Scotsman