Maybe now this is my favourite country in the world!

2024 had barely begun when, on 9 January, the BBC announced that 2023 was officially the warmest year on record. A new daily global temperature record had been set on more than 200 days last year, according to analysis by the BBC of data gathered by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

For Dr Fernando Rafael De Grande, like many other environmental scientists, this confirmation came as no surprise. Fernando has been studying the impact of warming temperature on Brazil’s delicate mangrove coastline for some time, but he spent 2023 working in Edinburgh with scientists from the Centre for Conservation and Restoration Science (CCRS) at Edinburgh Napier University.

‘The Centre is led by Professor Karen Diele at Edinburgh Napier, who also works and publishes on Brazil’s mangrove environment, so I have been familiar with her work for some time,’ explains Fernando, who studied his initial degree at São Paulo State University and is now a post-doc Research Fellow at the  Institute of Marine Science, Federal University of São Paulo (IMar/UNIFESP), Santos, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

‘I was keen to expand my research, to take a more global approach – and wanted to improve my English – so I applied to the Brazilian government to sponsor an opportunity to work with Professor Diele here in Scotland.’ Edinburgh Napier’s international reputation for mangrove research was essential to satisfy the funding conditions set by the Brazilian government, which agreed to sponsor his fellowship.

For the past year, Fernando’s research at Napier has focussed on producing a meta-analysis and systematic literature review, to assess where and how much warmer temperatures will likely impact mangrove fauna production around the globe.

‘It is difficult to test the impact of temperature increase in the field’, he explains, ‘so I have collated published results from lab experiments from around the world, including many different species, and have found that, yes, increasing temperatures due to climate change can negatively affect mangrove fauna, which in turn could impact the mangrove forests themselves, given the animals’ important ecological roles. Many animal species included in our study grow and reproduce less under increased temperatures. This impact is expected to become particularly acute in the Indo-Pacific and western Pacific. I am now looking forward to soon submit the results of our work to a scientific journal for publication, together with Karen and my Brazilian supervisors.

Reflecting on his 12 months in Edinburgh, just before his return to Brazil on 13 January, Fernando said: ‘Karen’s team in the Centre have an international reputation for their work, and she has published globally significant research in many papers, so I have benefited directly from that [expertise]. Napier also has a good research infrastructure, nice labs and equipment for marine research, and I have been equally impressed by the other science labs at the university.

‘CCRS works as an interdisciplinary group, and that has been a totally new and very good experience for me. I have learned how to work in this type of research environment, with colleagues from diverse disciplines, doing and publishing valuable research together. Other Marine Biology students off Karen work in Scotland, and I have been able to interact with them and discuss our areas of individual research, and that too has been very interesting and productive.

‘My time here has also much improved my English, as I’d hoped. As an academic, I can read and write in English, but living here has greatly helped my conversational English.

‘For people from the tropics, like me, Scotland is very different and has a very beautiful landscape. I have loved Scotland, and the people in Edinburgh have been very friendly. It’s a beautiful city with wonderful architecture and the culture here is amazing. There are good free museums, and of course the castle at the centre of the city! It is very different from San Paulo.

‘I’ve also travelled around Scotland during my time here, to Fort William, Glasgow, Inverness, and St Andrews. Maybe now this is my favourite country in the world!

Although now returning to continue his postdoctoral research Fellowship in São Paulo, Fernando will continue to collaborate with CCRS into the future. He has already been invited to work on and co-author two papers with Karen and colleagues from the Centre and says ‘We already started to plan some exciting new joint research work here in Brazil also, and field work for this will already kick off in a few weeks.’

‘I am optimistic that I can apply our research when I return to Brazil, to improve mangrove management and conservation in this region of the world. Our research is relevant not only for Brazil, but also for other countries with mangrove environments.’

frdegrande@gmail.com

Funding was provided by a FAPESP research grant No. 2022/12556-2.

Collaboration is the foundation needed to develop Scotland’s future Life Sciences skill set

Last year, Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) identified both the bioeconomy and life sciences as sectors of major opportunity.

Speaking on 29 November, at The Scotsman’s Life Science conference, Dr Claire Garden* officially launched the report from the recent Life and Chemical Sciences Skills Summit.

“This sector is so effective in driving economic growth, and so important for the future prosperity of our country,” Dr Garden told the audience.

The sector can also play a major role in achieving the Scottish Government’s ambitions for fair and green economic growth.

“The Life and Chemical Sciences sector employs about 1.1% of the Scottish workforce but contributes 4.4% of Scotland’s total economy (GVA),” added Dr Garden.The sector is also on track to increase its contribution to the Scottish economy to a total of £8bn by 2025, and Scotland’s Life Sciences sector is world-leading, partly because of its highly skilled and internationally recognised workforce.”

But what skills will be needed in future?

The first Life and Chemical Sciences Skills Summit was successfully led and hosted by Dr Garden in September 2023, with support from SULSA (Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance) and Skills Development Scotland.

“We brought together 80 representatives from industry, tertiary education, skills providers, and other key stakeholders, to collectively address two priority areas: the work-readiness of new entrants, and collaborative working between industry and tertiary education.”

Themes of consolidation, collaboration and challenge emerged, and discussions identified 15 recommendations that could all be grouped under two clear needs:

  • A centralised umbrella skills organisation for Life Sciences.
  • A sector skills platform for Scotland – comprising both physical and digital spaces to bring together and signpost all skills assets.

“Together, the organisation and platform would facilitate the kind of collaborative, creative work that we know will be required to meet the challenges set out by The Entrepreneurial Campus, Green Skills, and Digital and Data challenges set by government.”

The sector’s vision

There are two key strategies that set the vision for the sector’s future. First, the Life Sciences Strategy for Scotland 2025, which aims to make Scotland the location of choice for Life Sciences businesses, researchers, healthcare professionals and investors, while increasing Life Sciences contribution to Scotland’s economic growth.

The second is The National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology. It states that Scotland will become the go-to destination to incubate and grow bioeconomy businesses to scale; and to manufacture products and services desired by consumers and end-users that will facilitate the nation’s net zero 2045 ambition.

At the centre of both are the people and skills working in the sector.

“We know we need a skilled workforce, but the question of ‘which skills’ can be challenging,” said Dr Garden. “Businesses are telling us that the sector increasingly needs people to have multidisciplinary skills that combine scientific and non-scientific skill sets, such as: meta skills; digital and data; automation, AI and robotics; quality control and regulatory; green skills; commercial skills; and entrepreneurship.”

“At Edinburgh Napier, we are focussing now on consolidating our entrepreneurial offer to students, business, and our community: for example, through a Women’s Enterprise Hub; collaboration with businesses to incorporate more innovation challenge-based opportunities for our students; and an educator’s toolkit.

“We were delighted when the University was recently placed second in Scotland in the Entrepreneurial Impact Ranking, presented in the ‘Gateways to Growth Report’ by Octopus Ventures.

Closing with a call to action to all stakeholders across the sector, Dr Garden said: “It’s time now to consolidate and openly share our skills assets, and we must find smarter and more creative ways to continue to collaborate if we are to meet the challenges we face.”

* Dr Claire Garden is Associate Professor of Life Science Education and Head of Learning and Teaching in the School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University.

LINKS

report from the recent Life and Chemical Sciences Skills Summit

digital-economy-skills-action-plan.pdf (skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk)

green-jobs-in-scotland-report_final-4.pdf (skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk)

 

Education is key for a thriving Life and Chemical Sciences sector in Scotland

The Life and Chemical Sciences Sector in Scotland continues to face challenges in developing a highly skilled workforce and an awareness from young people about what careers in the sector are available. In response, Edinburgh Napier University, supported by the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) hosted the Scottish Life and Chemical Sciences Skills Summit on Thursday 28 September at Craiglockhart Campus.

The aim of the summit focuses on solutions in two priority areas: (1) work readiness skills of new entrants and (2) collaboration between industry and academia.

The summit opened with Dr. Claire Garden, Associate Professor and Head of Teaching and Learning, School of Applied Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University and Chair of the SULSA Skills Committee giving opening remarks honing in over a decade of work in the life science skills space. She has brought this summit to life bringing together approximately 70 individuals comprising of industry from the life and chemical sciences sector, college and university staff, innovation centres, and wider public sector agencies.

Dr. Claire Garden

Mr. Ivan McKee MSP delivered the keynote speech for the summit to a room of widely attentive and keen professionals throughout his remarks. McKee noted, that the Life and Chemical Sciences sector is identified in the UK Innovation Strategy and is a priority area that Scotland can be competitive in internationally. McKee is also a member of the Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Life Sciences and showed his enthusiasm for the potential of what the sector can do for Scotland’s economy. McKee stated that “a strong skills pipeline is essential to support Scotland’s fast-growing life and chemical science sector. I’m delighted to see the work of SULSA, bringing Universities, colleges, industry, and government agencies together at today’s skill summit to take forward concrete collaborative actions to address this need”.

The education system (including colleges, universities, training providers, and work-based learning/apprenticeships) is critical for the industry to retain and attract talent in the sector in Scotland. The solutions discussed in breakout sessions and workshops will mark the first step to influencing what comes next in the industry. According to Dr. Claire Garden, “the Summit was a resounding success where clear themes emerged. Work is already underway to address skills needs across the sector, however, there is a requirement for further support to share them in a visible way. There was also a clear desire for further opportunities to collaborate on targeted solutions.  Further details will be outlined in our report later in the year.”