Applied Knowledge Exchange

Scottish businesses are being offered a new grant of £1,000 by the Scottish Government to take on an apprentice. The £4 million scheme will run until March 26 and is available for up to 4000 employers.

The scheme is part of ScotAction, a scheme to help individuals and businesses through the recession and provide skills assistance for training for work, training in work and training from work to work to help Scottish people and businesses survive the downturn and thrive when the economy starts to recover.

Glasgow Caledonian University is also offering businesses bespoke study programmes and part-time education to allow them to boost their employees’ skills set. To find out more, contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange on 0141 331 3189.

The  Scottish Government has published a report following a consultation with the public sector on its views on whether the UK Equality Bill should introduce new socio-economic duties to Scottish public bodies.

The consultation asked whether the provision in the Bill to place a duty on certain public bodies to have due regard to socio-economic inequalities in strategic decision making (which, as the Bill stands, applies to England and Wales only) should be extended to Scottish public bodies.

69 written responses were received by the close of the consultation. Overall, there was a majority of respondents in favour of the application of the socio-economic duty to public authorities in Scotland.

A common theme was the existence of poverty and socio-economic inequality and other forms of inequality in Scotland, the impact of this and the need to address such issues. Others suggested a duty would ensure consistency and continuity of work to address socio-economic inequality and have a positive impact upon resources for such work and increase scrutiny of strategic decisions.

However, there were some perceived problems with the application of a socio-economic duty to public authorities in Scotland. Amongst these, a common theme was the existence of current arrangements and frameworks. There are also fears it would increase bureaucracy and make public authorities vulnerable to legal challenge and judicial review.

What is your view? Join the debate here.

Renewable and clean energy enjoys a ’significant comparative advantage’ in Scotland according to a Scottish Government report published this week.

The study highlights Scotland’s location, natural resources, research and development and manufacturing bases as key advantages for developing Scotland’s clean energy resource.

The report shows one additional gigawatt of onshore or offshore wind capacity could reduce Scotland’s current total carbon emissions by around 3%. Electricity grid infrastructure will be a fundamental influence on Scotland’s ability to accommodate growth in renewables.

Energy Minister Jim Mather said Scotland’s energy advantage lies in securing low carbon electricity from renewables and clean fossil fuels.

The Scottish Government has recruited the help of Scottish Water, John Lewis, BT and Scottish Power for a new 2020 Delivery Group to ensure that all sectors of Scotland’s economy and civic society contribute fully to achieving the Climate Change Delivery Plan which includes the target of a 42% reduction in emissions over the next decade.

Dr Alastair Sutherland of the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University says: ‘Here at GCU’s School of Life Sciences, we are looking at optimising microbial consortia in anaerobic digestion so that we can more efficiently generate biofuels including methane gas at micro- and macro-generation levels.

‘Inputs can be waste material or substrate such as seaweed or microalgae grown noncompetitively with food crops. We are particularly investigating anaerobic digestion of seaweed for use by small island communities and perhaps councils who need to remove cast seaweed from leisure beaches.
 
‘However, anaerobic digestion of grass and other horticultural waste and waste paper are being investigated. The benefits are developments in renewable biofuels, reduction in landfill waste and the release of associated methane (a greenhouse gas) from landfill.’

The School of Life Sciences works with local, national and international partners and is fully committed to promoting the economic vitality of Scotland and the UK . To find out more contact the Applied Knowledge Exchange.

With Climate Change and carbon management the hot topics of the day, the Caledonian Environment Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University has developed a bespoke carbon footprint tool to support companies in understanding their carbon impact.

The Centre, part of the School of the Built and Natural Environment, won funding from the Scottish Government and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to work on carbon management within Scotland’s food and drink sector.

The Centre is assisting food and drink related SMEs to improve their business competitiveness and environmental performance by managing their carbon emissions. The Caledonian Environment Centre has established an environmental capability assessment tool which provides bespoke carbon reduction plans for companies. 

The programme has so far engaged about 1,000 companies and surveyed over 340 for climate change and carbon management. 

The Centre is alo working on “Going Carbon Neutral Stirling” to develop a software application that formulates carbon reduction plans for communities.

Caledonian Evironment Centre is also working with the Scottish Prison Service, which is undertaking the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme, to establish a reduction strategy of between 15 and 25% of their current baseline.  The programme plan seeks to make cost savings for the service, supporting both the environmental impact of carbon, waste and transport by the organization and promoting well-being in inmates.