Hutton awarded over £340,000 to create nature restoration skills hub in the North East
The James Hutton Institute has been awarded £342,463 from the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Fund to create a Nature Restoration Skills Hub in the North East.
Officially opened by the First Minister on Wednesday, the funding will be used to deliver Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses in peatland restoration in the first place and providing both immediate and long-term skills development for the North East and Moray. It will also make resources in the National Soils Archive at the Hutton’s Craigiebuckler campus – a collection of over 60,000 soil samples collected from across Scotland since 1934 – accessible as a green skills and learning resource.
The skills hub will provide three courses, with each expected to include at least 15 participants. The courses will focus on key skills identified by NatureScot as important gaps in current CPD for peatland restoration and present a clear skills pathway, equipping participants with practical, transferable capabilities that can be applied directly to restoration projects.
By providing training in peatland restoration, the North East Nature Restoration Skills Hub will support communities as they adapt to the decline of carbon-intensive industries. Peatland restoration is a national priority, with the Scottish Government aiming to restore 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland (an area nearly ten times the size of Edinburgh) by 2030. Although restoration efforts are increasing, a lack of accessible training infrastructure in the North East has made it hard for local residents, communities and businesses to take part in the sector.
The new Immersive Suite and visualisation technology at the Hutton Hub (located on the Craigiebuckler campus and financed by the previous round of Just Transition Fund funding) will also be integrated into the programme, supporting delivery of training courses and enabling wider public engagement through the open science café and visitor access.
Professor Colin Campbell, Chief Executive of The James Hutton Institute, said, “Training in peatland restoration has become a real bottleneck in the drive to restore peatland and this course addresses that need and will help not only speed up the delivery of restoration but also ensure people have access to the latest information and techniques so it is done as well as possible.”
Initial funding from NatureScot will support the development and pilot delivery of the training content, with the award from the Just Transition Fund going towards further training content and improving the infrastructure of the North East Nature Restoration Skills Hub.
This project represents an important first step in the development of an ongoing training programme for restoration skills in the North East. By establishing the National Soils Archive as a dedicated training resource, the North East Nature Restoration Skills Hub ensures creates a platform for future courses on peatland and wider nature-based sectors, supporting sustained skills growth across the region.
Long-term, the new skills hub will support workforce development, strengthen local capacity, and enable individuals and organisations to access emerging low carbon opportunities, contributing to a fairer and more inclusive transition to net zero.
Professor Lee-Ann Sutherland, Director of the International Land Use Study Centre at The James Hutton Institute, who is leading the project, said, “This award reflects the growing recognition that achieving our nature restoration targets depends on investing in people as well as landscapes.
“By creating the North East Nature Restoration Skills Hub, we are building the knowledge, skills and networks needed to support long-term environmental recovery while ensuring communities in the region can access the opportunities arising from the transition to net zero.”
