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The food and drink sector in Scotland is getting £5 million to help its recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) and prepare for Brexit. A new joint industry and government plan containing more than 50 actions has been developed to assist in stimulating demand for produce in key markets and supporting businesses to capitalise on consumer demand. The plan is for Scotland's farming, fishing, food and drink sector and comes with a £5million funding commitment from the Scottish Government to support delivery by the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership. The Scotland Food & Drink Partnership, which includes Opportunity North East (ONE) as a member, comprises industry and trade bodies, the Scottish Government, and other public sector bodies, with the shared ambition to grow the reputation and value of the industry. #foodanddrink #farming #fishing #ONEFoodDrinkAgriculture @scotfooddrink

The transformational £40 million BioHub project to double the size of north east Scotland’s high-growth life sciences company cluster will move into its main construction phase in the new year. The new-build, 69,000 square foot BioHub on the Foresterhill Health Campus will provide specialist support programmes and dedicated laboratory, collaboration and office accommodation for established and growing life sciences businesses, start-ups and spinouts. It will also be a focal point for international partnerships and investor engagement. Site enabling works for BioHub are ongoing and delivery of the main construction contract is programmed to run through 2021. Companies, researchers, clinicians and academics in Aberdeen are at the forefront of high-value developments in biologics and new therapeutics, digital health and medtech, all built on a strong culture of collaborative innovation. BioHub will accelerate commercialisation in the sector to address modern health challenges, including COVID-19, improve patient outcomes and change how healthcare is delivered. BioHub will anchor innovative businesses and jobs in the region and support the growth of the national health economy. BioHub is one of the industry innovation projects supported by the Aberdeen City Region Deal (ACRD), a partnership between the UK Government, Scottish Government, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Opportunity North East (ONE). The UK Government and Scottish Government are co-funding £20 million of capital funding for BioHub via ACRD. ONE is the lead partner for the project and has committed £3.6 million from its budget to operate the BioHub and deliver specialist support programmes. A new company, BioAberdeen Limited, has been formed to deliver BioHub. #BioHub #ABZDeal #lifesciences #Aberdeen

Proponents of vertical farming have hailed the growing system as a significant development for agriculture. On 11 November 2020, ONE Food, Drink & Agriculture explored the technology, environmental benefits and economics of vertical farming with businesses at the forefront of its development in Aberdeenshire - Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) and Vertegrow. The North East Scotland Food & Drink Network webinar examined the latest developments in indoor farming and how vertical farms can expand the range of crop output, to provide year-round supplies for retail, hospitality, catering and food processing. The emerging sector involves crops grown in stacked indoor systems and could become a key component in the long-term agricultural mix. Aberdeenshire is the location of one of Scotland's first large-scale vertical farms. More than £1.4 billion has been invested in vertical farming globally since 2014. Vertegrow is an early adopter of vertical farming technology on a commercial scale and is building one of the first large-scale vertical farms in Scotland. The investment represents a diversification of their existing arable farm at Waterside in Aberdeenshire, which grows barley and rye for brewing and distilling. Under the banner “Plants, People, Planet”, Vertegrow is focussed on growing in a way which is both environmentally and financially sustainable. Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) has developed one of the most advanced vertical farming systems, which harnesses many of the technologies that underpin the fourth industrial revolution, to create much more sophisticated growing environments. Copies of the presentations delivered by IGS and Vertegrow are now available on our opportunitynortheast.com website, along with a recording of the webinar. #ONEFoodDrinkAgriculture #verticalfarming #innovation #Aberdeenshire

NovaBiotics, the Aberdeen-based clinical-stage antimicrobials drug discovery company, has secured £1 million in funding from Innovate UK to allow the company to prepare for clinical studies of a potentially game-changing therapy for the treatment of COVID-19. NovaBiotics’ Nylexa® therapy has a unique dual-action. It targets the infection and hyper inflammation that are the causes of morbidity and mortality in COVID-19. Nylexa also acts against bacterial lung infections that, in some cases, can occur in COVID-19 patients, secondary to SARS-CoV-2 infection and which lead to much worse outcomes. The active ingredient of Nylexa is readily available, cost-effective and scalable, offering the potential for near-term, large-scale use by healthcare systems, subject to the successful completion of clinical development. This ingredient and related compounds have been in use in medicines that treat unrelated conditions for over 30 years. Nylexa can proceed directly into phase 2 clinical studies and is under consideration for inclusion in two, critically important, global platform trials. As a repurposed therapy which addresses a public health emergency, Nylexa is likely to continue to follow a fast-track pathway to completion of its clinical development and regulatory approval for licensing as a medicine in the UK and globally. The grant from Innovate UK will support NovaBiotics in completing the manufacturing of the clinical trial material and preparation work for phase 2 clinical testing in hospitalised COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe disease. #lifesciences #innovation #funding #Aberdeen