The James Hutton Institute is inviting expressions of interest for a partner to lead its pioneering HydroGlen project in northeast Scotland.

HydroGlen is a demonstration project, setting out the potential for farming communities to use hydrogen in a scalable and replicable way so that they could become self-reliant, low-carbon energy producers and exporters.

Internationally recognised expert on global sustainability issues Professor Johan Rockström shared groundbreaking insights at the 44^th annual TB Macaulay lecture held in Edinburgh on Wednesday night (18^th October 2023).

Each year the Macaulay Development Trust, in partnership with The James Hutton Institute, hosts a world-renowned guest speaker for its annual TB Macaulay Lecture.

The lecture was held on Thursday evening (18th October 2023) in Edinburgh, where we were honoured to host Johan Rockström, who is internationally recognised for his work on global sustainability issues. We were delighted to welcome an audience of over 500 attendees to the event.

A rare and very elusive ant has been discovered to be thriving in Deeside for the first time in more than 70 years.

The shining guest ant, known for being a “cuckoo” of the ant world, because it only lives in the nests of other ants, was last seen in Deeside 1952.

The rediscovery of the ant was made by wildlife tour operators Dan and Rachael Brown of Wild Discovery, at Crathie, near Balmoral Castle.

Working together is more critical than ever to support people and nature recovery in the North East, says the new coordinator of the North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership (NESBiP).

Liam McAllan, who is based at NESBiP host The James Hutton Institute, will support the partnership of 40 organisations in driving “joined-up” approaches to conservation and tackling threats to biodiversity across North-East Scotland.

Independent research organisation The James Hutton Institute has welcomed four new leading figures from across government, academia and industry to its board.

Anne MacColl, an international consultant, Susan Mitchell, Chief Operating Officer & Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Glasgow Caledonian University, and Lindsay Sim, Senior Manager for Finance and Revenues for Clackmannanshire Council, were recently adopted onto the Hutton board.

Arable and mixed farmers are being sought to help shape a new mobile phone app that could help them tackle on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

During a workshop at Glensaugh research farm near Laurencekirk, researchers from The James Hutton Institute will demonstrate the app prototype, which, alongside on-farm sensors, will estimate GHG emissions and point to ways to reduce and even help store more carbon in arable and mixed systems.

Efforts to discover the mystery cause of a devastating horse disease called equine grass sickness (EGS) have turned to soil science.

A collaboration between soil specialists at The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, animal health experts at Moredun Research Institute and the Equine Grass Sickness Fund is hoping to find clues to the origins of the deadly disease by comparing what’s in soil from a hot spot of EGS in Aberdeenshire with biological samples from actual cases.

Work to drive the understanding of the importance of Scotland’s peatland to the natural environment and greenhouse gas emissions budgets by The James Hutton Institute’s peatland research team has been shortlisted in the Conservation Science Award at RSPB Scotland’s prestigious Nature of Scotland Awards.

The work of the team is enabling direct action, informing mitigation, restoration and protection efforts of peatlands. This has been through the production of a wide body of research by the Hutton’s interdisciplinary peatland team.

The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen has invested in the latest hi-tech laboratory equipment to help keep it at the top of the world league in mineralogy and address challenges across soil health, from food security to carbon storage.

The independent research institute’s new £140,000 X-ray diffraction (XRD) machine will boost the institute’s analytics capacity, especially around the precise determination of rock and soil content.