Professor Iain Gordon, chief executive of the Dundee and Aberdeen based James Hutton Institute (JHI) sees these post-referendum weeks as a good time to reassess his funding campaign for this leading agricultural and land use research body.
“Of course the background is that there will be economic austerity for years to come, and support for the Hutton will be uncertain.
“I don’t see support increases from Scottish Government as being likely, so it is a good time to remind UK Government that we are part of the UK research infrastructure.
“I expect channels that were blocked (during the referendum campaign) to now open up.”
His target, particularly for capital funding, is the recently announced UK Agri Tech Strategy. With its £160 million war chest it is seen as a major source of funds for capital projects.
Prof Gordon was making his points in an exclusive interview with The Courier, and against the background of a controversial redundancy programme aimed at reducing the 600 posts at JHI by 70, with job losses at the Mylnefield campus, Invergowrie, and the Craigiebuckler campus in Aberdeen.
A revenue shortfall of £2.5m has been blamed for forcing the job losses only three years after the creation of the Hutton by merging the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (MLURI).
“I spoke to staff last Thursday and the present position is that 41 individuals are to take part in a voluntary exit scheme.
“A further six are on hold, and it is likely that the total number will be around 45,” said Prof Gordon.
That leaves around 25 posts still at risk as JHI moves to the next stage, which is a formal voluntary redundancy programme with which the Prospect union will be involved and where terms will be within the guidelines laid down by the British Biological Science Research Council.
“This voluntary redundancy process will be targeted at two particular areas. One is within the ecological sciences group based across both the Dundee and Aberdeen sites. The other will be within the cell and molecular sciences group based in Dundee. There are about 200 staff currently in those two groups,” Prof Gordon added.
“We would really like to have all this completed on a voluntary basis before Christmas. I very much hope we do not have to move to compulsory redundancies.
“This is a very upsetting time and I am fully aware of that, and we are trying to be as clear as we can about the process.
“It is all about the Hutton’s long-term sustainability. I don’t think the citizens of Dundee or Aberdeen would like to see the JHI group faltering.
“Funding is going down, and that is a reality, but we will continue to look at income generation from all sources including our commercial arms.”
Asked if he felt let down by the Scottish Government having created a new merged scientific institute and then failing to fund it adequately, Prof Gordon replied: “No, I don’t feel let down. I had no role in the predecessor bodies and took on a new job to run JHI, and the challenge has been to be able to live in the new world.
“This is not the only institute in Scotland to be going through hard times.”
In his view, SCRI and MLURI would not have been able to operate independently in the long term without becoming tied to other local institutes such as the universities.
“I am often asked if we will merge with others, but I feel that we are now a large enough institution to be able to operate independently while having conversations with others and working with them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prof Gordon has refined his capital investment plans to concentrate on two possible innovation centres.
One, a Centre for Barley Innovation, would operate from a new set of buildings at the Mylnefield campus near Dundee.
The other, a Centre of Integrated Land Use Planning, would be constructed on the Craigiebuckler campus in Aberdeen.
Until recently the aspiration had been to spend up to £90 million completely revamping the Mylnefield campus, which is a mixture of old and new buildings.
Prof Gordon thought this modified plan could be made reality within “a couple of years” as far as the Centre for Barley Innovation was concerned.
The decision to concentrate initially on barley had been made because of the existing strong links with the whisky industry and the importance of the Scottish crop as a source of raw material.
JHI already has strong links with the industry through the Scotch Whisky Research Institute at Heriot Watt University and the Scotch Whisky Association, with Professor Derek Stewart holding a joint professorship.
His Mylnefield-based colleague professor Robbie Waugh and his team specialise in barley genetics and are well placed to research new characteristics designed to boost distilling and agronomic performance.
“Capital release for projects such as this is uncertain but we are going through the correct channels,” said Prof Gordon.