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Business Sector Leads

The Business Sector Leads are here to support the development of income within the James Hutton Institute which involves working with funding partners, horizon scanning, helping staff to draft proposals, providing advice and guidance to staff and working with the executive team to develop other strategic projects which enhance the institute.

Derek Stewart

Staff picture: Derek Stewart

Derek Stewart is the Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC), a £27M flagship project at the James Hutton Institute.  The APGC is a major industry collaborative effort that aims to deliver increased commercial, economic and environmental benefits to the agricultural, food and drink sectors in the UK and internationally by innovative use of precision controlled environment technologies. In this directorial role he is responsible for establishing the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC) strategic research and business plans, and ensuring their implementation through annual Operational Plans to deliver a dynamic basic, translational and applied research programme

Derek was previously the AgriFood Business Sector leader and before that the head of the Crop Productivity and Utilisation Theme. He previously held the Chair of Food Chemistry in the Department of Engineering and Physical Science at Heriot Watt University, and this is now an honorary role. Over 30+ years he has pursued a career in crop production, raw material composition and its relation to product quality, functionality, bioactivity and utility and this is reflected in his >200 refereed publications and an H-Index of 62.  Across his career he has, and continues to have, coordination and WP leader positions in large EU grants and significant experience as a PI in RCUK and Innovate UK projects. Professor Stewart sits on many national and EU review panels and is currently one of the experts on the Quaker Centre of Excellence and Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre scientific advisory boards.

More recently Derek became a director on the board of Bloom Biotechnologies Ltd., an innovation joint venture between Epigentica, a company delivering biotechnological innovation to industry stakeholders, and James Hutton Ltd.


Printed from /staff/businessectorleads on 19/03/24 04:39:49 AM

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.