Hutton Highlights, October 2021

News Highlights 4 Hutton Highlights New Tayside partnership is one of seven Climate Beacons for COP26 The James Hutton Institute is delighted to support one of seven Climate Beacons taking shape across Scotland in the run-up to and beyond the UN COP26 Conference in Glasgow this November. The Institute has joined forces with Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre, V&A Dundee, Dundee Museum of Transport and other partners in the region to bring collective cultural and environmental knowledge and skills to bear on the climate change challenges Tayside communities face. The project aims to help everyone understand how climate change will affect them personally and what they can do to reduce it. Across Scotland more than 30 environmental, cultural and heritage organisations are coming together with the same goal, and the Institute is pleased to be involved in the Tayside Beacon. ‘Climate Beacons’ are being established in Argyll, Caithness & East Sutherland, Fife, Inverclyde, Midlothian and the Outer Hebrides with themes include Scotland’s temperate rainforests, industrial heritage, water, adaptation to climate change, land use, biodiversity, green jobs, and the recovery from COVID-19. The partnership will create a 12-month pilot ‘utilising design- led innovation and methodologies with a wide range of audiences to explore and co-produce ways to imagine and deliver a better, more sustainable future’. Climate Beacons for COP26 is an initiative o f Creative Carbon Scotland , a charitable organisation that works with individuals, organisations and strategic bodies across the cultural and sustainability sectors to harness culture’s vital role in achieving a more environmentally sustainable Scotland. Find out more at www.climatebeacons.com. October 2020 5 Comments? A new website which brings together thousands of research publications - from centuries back to the present day - has been launched by six Scottish Government funded partners. The new Research Scotland portal unites publications from Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, Hutton, Marine Scotland, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, SASA and the Moredun Research Institute. It will make it easier for members of the public to access full-text research on areas like climate change, biodiversity loss and the state of our waters and oceans in one place, free of charge. The publications available date from as long ago as 1683 and range from the Hortus medicus edinburgensis , the first catalogue of plants growing in the Botanic Garden, to the outputs from current publicly funded research. An example of the wealth of research available through the new portal is a paper on the spatial distribution of marine litter on the northwest European continental shelf. The study looks at how the prevailing wind direction impacts on how much litter is washed on to, and off from, beaches in Scotland. This information can be used, alongside monitoring data from a citizen science programme run by the Marine Conservation Society that measures the amount of litter on beaches, to help managers and policy makers measure the success of litter reduction strategies. RBGE’s Dr Lorna Mitchell, Research Scotland project lead, said: “By bringing together publications into one single platform, Research Scotland is helping to present a fuller picture of work that has been previously been produced and identifying gaps where further research is required across some of our big global societal issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.” Dr David Kenyon, Head of Diagnostics, Wildlife & Molecular Biology at SASA and the Scottish Government Head of Professional Development for Science, noted that the Research Scotland website provides unrivalled access to a wealth of historical data held by these world class research institutions. “I strongly believe that science funded by the Scottish Government is done so on behalf of the Scottish people and therefore it is vital to facilitate access to its outcomes,” he said. Higher and Further Education Minister Jamie Hepburn said that by bringing these important publications together into one single platform, Research Scotland would make it easier for researchers and the public to find and use our data. “It will present a fuller picture of previously-produced work and help identify gaps where further research is needed across some of our big global social issues, including climate change and biodiversity loss.” Research Scotland is hosted by the Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries (SCURL) Shared Service at the University of Edinburgh. New Scottish knowledge portal to offer access to wealth of research Celebrating the inspirational people, projects, groups and organisations working hard to protect Scotland’s precious natural heritage, the shortlist has now been announced for the Nature of Scotland Awards 2021, including finalists for the Food and Farming category sponsored by Hutton. The shortlist for the 2021 awards represents a cross-section of businesses, charities, the public sector and individuals working towards conserving the country’s unique wildlife and natural environment. Food has a big environmental footprint; from how we grow it, to the amount we waste. However, some individuals, businesses and organisations are doing things differently, reducing their own environmental impact and helping consumers make good food choices, from wildlife-friendly farmers to farm shops, cafes and caterers carefully sourcing ingredients and reducing food waste. The Food and Farming award celebrates these sustainable food champions. Finalists for the Nature of Scotland Food and Farming Award 2021 are: • Kinclune Organic Nature Farm • Nature Friendly Farming Network • Propagate (Scotland) • Spital Tower Sustainability - integrated plans for the future Nature of Scotland Awards shortlist 2021 announced Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 17 November.