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Summary of financial outturn 2016-17

The James Hutton Institute

The James Hutton Institute has published its Annual Accounts for the financial year to April 2017.

In a tough financial climate with challenges arising from ongoing austerity and uncertainty around Brexit consequences, the James Hutton Institute continues to be successful in winning grants and awards. However it needs to continue to look for opportunities to increase grant and commercial income to reduce reliance on Scottish Government research contracts.

Last year’s external grants revenue totalled £8.3m compared with £7.4m in 2015/16, but is set against a backdrop of £1.3m less from Scottish Government and was further hindered by the cyclical nature of grant awards and the tailing off of funds from UKRI, for which the Institute lost eligibility in 2014/15. There was also a slight increase in staff costs in the past year – up by £0.4m to £24.8m. The overall outturn showed a deficit of £2.1m, up from £0.6m.

Capital income continues to be very challenging and the Scottish Government element dropped to just £100k last year, from £3.1m in 2011, excluding a one-off special equipment grant.  There is concern that this level of capital expenditure is less than what is needed to maintain the Institute’s estate and infrastructure so finding alternative sources of capital funding is a priority. In part to this end, two major infrastructure and development projects worth £68m were submitted to the Tay Cities Deal, with the outcome expected in Spring 2018.

As Strategic Research Programme funding is likely to be squeezed further we have refocussed income generation efforts on innovation and international funding sources to grow external contract revenue and further reduce reliance on Scottish Government funding. On 1st April this year the Institute also transferred all staff to a new single set of Hutton terms and conditions to harmonise and reduce pension costs and take local control of pay awards. This puts the institute in better control of its costs in the future.

We are further exploring ways to make best use of our facilities, staff and estate, reducing both energy costs and the carbon footprint of our activitiesas well as controlling expenditure and reducing running costs. Several renewable energy options are under investigation.

It has been a wonderful year of doing science and the Institute has collaborations in 62 countries around the world. Its long-term resilience depends on increasing and diversifying our income streams and translating the success of our internationally work into more income.

Details of next year’s Scottish Government funding position are expected in mid-January 2018.

Press and media enquiries: 

Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 (mobile).

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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.