£4m farm research awards are hailed

Animal health and welfare fillip

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SCOTTISH agricultural scientists have been awarded £4.17million from the UK and Scottish governments to turn innovative research ideas into commercial ventures.

The two successful funding bids to the public sector research exploitation initiative and announced at London’s Natural History Museum by Science and Innovation Minister Ian Pearson were led by Edinburgh's Moredun Research Institute.

Moredun deputy director Professor Willie Donachie expressed delight at the wins, which would help translate scientific research into products and services to improve animal health and welfare.

The £1.17million grant has been given to Genecom, a company based at the Moredun Research Institute and also involving the Institute for Animal Health at Compton and the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie, near Dundee.

Genecom has already spun out five new companies from various institutions that have led to several new diagnostic tests for diseases. The firm also qualifies for an additional £436,000 from the European Regional Development Fund.

Genecom chief executive Patrick McCarthy said: “With such a big award both from UK and the Scottish governments, I think there’s a great opportunity to influence and to promote the development of both vaccines and diagnostics from our partners’ science base."

The other bid came from the Genomia Fund, a consortium led by Moredun and also involving the Institute of Animal Health, Forest Research, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, the Roslin Institute, Royal Botanic Gardens, Rowett Research Institute, Scottish Agriculture College (SAC), Scottish Association for Marine Science and SCRI. It has already brought 25 scientific initiatives to the market.

The latest cash award, which is supported with a further £812,000 from the European regional development fund, will be used to pump-prime new initiatives and access wider business support to commercialise scientific work.

Genomia's support has so far generated a further £4.8million in private finance to support work that has led to the developments of treatments against red poultry mite, genetic work focusing on the cause of poultry diseases, new cattle and sheep disease vaccines and spin out companies targeting drugs for neurological and anti- inflammatory conditions.