PELAgIO
PELAgIO (Physics-to-Ecosystem level assessment of impacts of Offshore Windfarms) is supporting the development of evidence-based policy and marine management through interdisciplinary research that explores the consequences of offshore wind development on marine environments, marine wildlife, and wider ecosystem structures. The PELAgIO project is exploring the impacts of offshore wind development across all levels of the food chain, looking at the predicted changes across a range of scales – from plankton productivity to the availability of prey for top predators, as well as broader consequences at the ecosystem level.
Scientific Robotics Academy
The Scientific Robotics Academy at SAMS aims to train the next generation of environmental and climate scientists in the capability and use of autonomous instrumented platforms and teach the present generation of engineers in the needs, desires and challenges of the marine science community who monitor the planet.
Shetland Green Skills
UHI Shetland chairs and leads this collaborative planning group formed to ensure that skills issues across Shetland, from education to industry are well understood, and an effective and timely response is developed to ensure a skilled workforce and appropriate training provision is in place to address challenges and capitalise on opportunities that will arise as Shetland progresses its net zero ambitions.
Combating algal blooms with sewage waste IBioIC Feasibility Fund
Researchers in Scotland are investigating the potential of converting sewage sludge into a mineral-rich material that could be used to treat water impacted by eutrophication and algal blooms – a phenomenon increasingly affecting lochs and rivers, associated with climate change. In a project funded by the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) and Scottish Water, a consortium of partners including UHI are assessing the viability of a water filter derived from biochar – a charcoal-like substance created when materials, in this case sewage sludge, are burned at high temperatures and deprived of oxygen.
Emiel Food Forest
Researchers from UHI Inverness are working with partners Earthself to create a test site on a Highland estate for Scotland’s first sustainable community food forest – the cultivation of a forest ecosystem for human food production. Talladh-a-Bheithe Estates is providing 1.3 hectares of land on the shore of Loch Rannoch in Perthshire for Earthself to steward in memory of Aemilius Justin Matthias van Well, who was known as Emiel. The Loch Rannoch test site will be planted in September 2024, and it is hoped it will be the catalyst for a wider partnership that will develop food forests around Scotland. Earthself has an initial 10-year agreement with Talladh-a-Bheithe to cultivate Emiel’s Food Forest for the benefit of the local community.
ROBINSON
The ROBINSON project is developing an integrated energy system to help decarbonise (industrialised) islands coupling, thermal, electrical and gas networks, to optimise the utilisation of local renewable energy sources. Through the development of a smart, modular and optimised Energy Management System (EMS), ROBINSON will integrate existing and newly developed technologies and this integrated system will ensure a reliable, cost-efficient and resilient energy supply contributing to the decarbonisation of the European islands by helping to decrease CO2 emissions.