Scottish Government Blogs

May 15, 2013
by Peter Irving
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Community Broadband Scotland Pioneering Communities Seminar: Aviemore, 24-25 April 2013

The Scottish Government launched Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) in August 2012 to assist rural communities, particularly those will not have next generation broadband delivered by its Step Change digital programme, and help them to achieve a significant uplift in broadband service.  CBS will allow communities to take greater ownership and play a central role in securing the broadband services they need, and will deliver significant benefits to local and rural economies.

The Aviemore Seminar was the first occasion that all six Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) Pioneer Projects had gathered since they were first announced in November 2012.  It was also the first time that the near-full complement of CBS Development Advisers – who have local knowledge and networks are now operating throughout Scotland – were all together under the same roof.  Valuable contributions were also made over the course of the two-day seminar by established and emerging community broadband projects, the Plunkett Foundation, Aberdeen University, as well as the wider CBS team and CBS partners.

The main focus of the seminar was on the Pioneer projects – Applecross, Colonsay, Ewes Valley, Elvanfoot, Tomintoul and Glenlivet and Corgarff and Glenbuchat – which are already receiving targeted support from CBS.  The informal and interactive nature of the event enabled these and community broadband projects to learn from each other’s experiences.  It was also an excellent opportunity for communities to get to know the CBS team even better.  This was invaluable in that CBS will be working intensively over the coming months and years with pioneering and emerging communities to assist them in developing viable and sustainable projects, and in trialling innovative technology and business models.

For me the most striking aspect of the CBS Aviemore seminar was the overwhelming enthusiasm and commitment of the participants, who kindly gave up their own time, and took time out of their day jobs to put so much into this event.  Upon reflection, I should have expected nothing less, as these are the same community members that have already spent so much time, energy and commitment to help get better broadband to their communities. This serves to underline the very nature of CBS – the development of projects conceived, owned and operated by communities and for communities.

Video footage of all the speakers from the first day of the seminar will be available on the Scottish Government’s Digital Dialogue webpage.  This includes: overviews of the Scottish Government’s Digital Strategy and of the CBS initiative; presentations by each of the six CBS Pioneer Projects; as well as more specialised sessions on broadband and community resilience, and fibre solutions.

The CBS Start-Up Fund is now open to both expressions of interest and applications, and subject to availability of funds, will remain open till 30 November 2014. Applications for funding support can be made at any time so that communities can come forward when they are ready to take their outline plans forward.  For more information, please see the CBS website.

May 13, 2013
by David Barnes
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The end is nigh for CAP reform

This coming week is one of three or four big meetings.

I wrote this blog as I was travelling out for Monday’s Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels.  The Irish Presidency will report back on its negotiations with the representatives of the European Parliament, and more importantly will ask the member states whether they are willing to compromise with the Parliament on certain points – specifically whether the small farmer simplified scheme, the young farmer direct payment top up, and the ‘negative list’ of business types a priori ineligible for direct payments, should be an option for those member states that want to use them, or compulsory for all.  Our view is that in the name of not imposing red tape where it’s not necessary, they should all be optional.

While in Brussels we will also be dropping in on the Commission for some discussions.

Then on Wednesday our internal steering group will be looking at two big issues.  First, how to take forward our direct payments modelling, in light of our conference in April and comments received since; and secondly, an analysis of the prospects for using the ‘different but equivalent’ approach to the greening of direct payments here in Scotland.

Finally on Friday our CAP stakeholder group will meet to discuss all of those and other issues.

Looking around me at the airport, I couldn’t help but be slightly jealous of all the people who are jetting off with their golf clubs – and frustrated at how slow the queue at check-in is moving (can’t wait till the airline starts offering online check-in again).  But it’s a sobering thought that after this Council meeting, the next one is due to be the decisive endgame.  There will still be loads to do thereafter, but the end, at least of this phase of the CAP reform process, really is nigh!

 

May 10, 2013
by John Swinney
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Big in Japan – the 200 year old Mack

Traditional Scottish design becomes an iconic international brand

Almost 200 years on since Scotsman Charles Macintosh invented the process of rubberising cotton, his namesake coat is still one of Scotland’s best known products.

In fact, it’s not only the Scots who have continued their love affair with the ‘mack’. Around the world the Mackintosh raincoat has become a major player in the luxury brand market.

A partnership with Japanese company Yagi Tsusho, which led to the acquisition of Mackintosh, has been a key factor in expanding global sales to the level that they are today.

This is certainly true for Japan, which following the establishment of Mackintosh Japan, welcomed a flagship store in Tokyo in 2012.

Mackintosh coats are very popular with Japanese women and Japan now accounts for 40 per cent of the brand’s global sales.

I visited the Tokyo store today and met with Mr Yozo Yagi, the COO and Marketing Director of Mackintosh Japan. It was inspiring to see the traditional Mackintosh style represented in such a creative and imaginative way and displayed in an elegant modern setting.

The growth of the Mackintosh product is a great example of how a strategic partnership with Japanese investors has unlocked the potential of a traditional Scottish brand globally.

Mackintosh has been positioned as a luxury fashion brand through retaining the heritage and original craftsmanship of a traditional Scottish clothing product.

The company now has stockists in 12 countries worldwide with a store in London’s Mayfair in addition to the Tokyo outlet.

Innovation and design has always been at the heart of the Scottish textile industry and it is this attention to detail that makes Mackintosh so popular in Japan.
Mackintosh is an example of how, through investing in innovation and collaborating with global partners, Scottish companies can find new channels to market their designs in international markets.

May 8, 2013
by Professor Asada, Kyoto University
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Stronger Scottish and Japanese life sciences links

Professor Asada and Finance Secretary John Swinney at Kyoto life sciences seminar

Geographically the cities of Kyoto and Edinburgh are far removed. Intellectually, culturally and economically our two cities are becoming ever closer.

That proximity was further reinforced this week when Scotland’s Finance Secretary John Swinney met with key Japanese businesses working in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine here in Kyoto.

The links between Kyoto and Edinburgh are not new. A friendship agreement between the two cities was signed in 1997. These long-standing relationship have led to innovative collaborations for the mutual benefit of both regions, particularly in life sciences.

In 2005 the University of Edinburgh and Kyoto University signed the first collaboration and research agreements between the cities.

In 2011 the University of Edinburgh’s Medical Research Council for Regenerative Medicine (MRC-CRM) and Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) Kyoto University signed an MoU for joint research collaborations which will contribute to advancement of regenerative medicine and innovations.

Having spent two years working in Edinburgh myself, at the Fujisawa Institute of Neuroscience in Edinburgh (FINE), and helping to organise many trade missions to Scotland for Japanese companies, I’m delighted that this collaboration will now become even more concrete.

In July, when Japanese businesses once again visit Edinburgh to strengthen our trade links, iCeMS will open the iCeMS Open Innovation Office at Edinburgh’s BioQuarter.

Kyoto stands at the centre of Japan’s life science industry with some 250 located businesses in the cities of Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto and is home to 37 institutes of higher education.

Through our growing collaboration with colleagues in Edinburgh and Scotland, our two countries are increasingly positioning themselves at the centre of a global industry.

 

Further information is available through Scottish Enterprise’s website.

May 1, 2013
by David Barnes
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Another CAP milestone

Today we pass another significant milestone on the journey to the new CAP in Scotland, with the publication of the first of two consultation documents on the next Scotland Rural Development Programme, and the first of our roadshow of evening meetings tonight in Portree.

I’ve written before about the process we went through last year, with eight working groups of stakeholders and government officials looking at what the content of the next SRDP should be, and how it could be delivered.  Those ideas have been pulled together and ‘reality checked’ (for instance, there’s no point us taking forward ideas that wouldn’t be legal under the EU regulations) and now form the basis of the consultation document.

This first consultation looks at the big picture issues rather than the detail: questions like what kind of measures should the new SRDP contain, how can the delivery model be improved, how can we better encourage collaborative projects, and so on.  There will be more than a dozen evening meetings on it around the country  where anyone with an interest can come and hear about it from the horse’s mouth.  Meanwhile the detailed design of the measures within the SRDP will be the subject of a second consultation later in the summer.

April 25, 2013
by Brenda Russell
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Future Funds – Annual Publicity Event

European Structural Funds – Annual Publicity Event & Awards Ceremony

Date:              Tuesday 14th  May 2013

Time:             8:45 – 15:00

Event:            Glasgow Caledonian University

The Future Funds team are hosting the Annual Publicity Event on Tuesday 14th May 2013.

This event will see a keynote speech being delivered by Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on the value of the European Structural funds to Scotland. We are also pleased to announce guest speaker Mr Stub Jorgensen from EU Commission who will discuss Structural Funds from a European perspective.

Since 2007, ESF has supported projects across Scotland to tackle challenges including youth employment and long-term unemployment, as well as supporting access to learning. Projects funded by the ERDF programmes have provided assistance to small and medium businesses, enabled research and innovation, and supported disadvantaged communities.

Programme Agenda

Keynote Speech and opening – Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon

Reflecting on Current programme – Shane Rankin, Scottish Government

Guest Speaker, Mr Stub Jorgensen, EU Commission

Awards / Recognition Ceremony – highlighting key projects from current programme.

Panel Discussion and round table workshops on 2014 – 2020 programme

2014 – 2020 Consultation

As we move towards the end of the 2007-2013 Structural Funds programmes, this year’s event will celebrate the projects which have been supported as part of the current period and look forwards to the forthcoming 2014-2020 programmes.

At the event, we will be launching a consultation on the draft Operational Programmes for 2014-2020 and seeking to get stakeholder’s opinions on how these programmes can deliver for Scotland.

Event Details

The Event will be held on Tuesday 14th May 2013 at Glasgow Caledonian University, Banqueting Hall, Glasgow. Timings for the event will be between 8:45 to 15:00 including lunch.

I would be grateful if you could respond by email to Lorraine Cairns lorraine.cairns@scotland.gsi.gov.uk  indicating whether you are interested in attending this event, additionally please confirm the number of persons attending in your party.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact the European Structural Funds Division on 0300 244 6825.

April 22, 2013
by David Barnes
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Sunshine at last

It’s a sunny morning here in Luxembourg, and it looks like we’ll have something to smile about when the Council of Ministers meets this morning.

It must be at least a year and a half, possibly longer, since we flagged up at UK and EU level the fact that the timetable for the CAP negotiations would make it simply impossible for member states to have their new rural development programmes written and approved by 1 Jan 2014.  That being the case, a highly undesirable gap between the end of the current SRDP, on 31 Dec 2013, and the start of the next one, would be unavoidable – unless something was done.  We pointed out that the obvious solution would be simply to allow the existing programmes to be extended by a year.

Today in the Council, Commissioner Ciolos is going to present a proposed transitional regulation which comes close to allowing that.  Although we’ve only just received it and haven’t had time for a thorough analysis, it looks like the proposal will allow us to avoid a gap for many of the key elements of the SRDP – LFASS, agri-environment contracts, woodland creation etc.

It doesn’t appear to extend to the entire SRDP, which is disappointing and which we will aim to address during the negotiation.  But it is a huge step forward, and one which we’ve been requesting for a long time now.  So it’s definitely good news.

April 19, 2013
by Clive Downing
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IXScotland – An Internet Exchange Point for Scotland

On 27 March, a very successful meeting of around 70 people was held at Heriot Watt University’s Edinburgh Conference Centre to discuss the creation of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Scotland.

An IXP is a set of telecommunications equipment housed in a secure data centre that allows Internet Service Providers to pass traffic to each other without significant cost.  The biggest IXP in theUK is LINX (the London Internet Exchange) which is spread over several data centres in the London Docklands area.  There are also regional IXPs in Manchester and Leeds.

Currently most internet traffic in Scotland will go to one of the IXPs in England and the vast majority of traffic flows to London.  For example, making a connection from Edinburgh University to Aberdeen takes several hops (depending on ISP) and will go all the way to London and back.

The benefit of an IXP in Scotland is that it allows the internet traffic that goes all the way down to London and back to stay in Scotland – this means a better customer experience as this trip causes some delay. Also, with the huge increase in video content (YouTube, iPlayer etc.) the companies that manage and distribute this content tend to store and play out the content from data centres close to the IXPs giving the best response times and minimising network congestion and delay to provide the best possible content quality and customer experience.

I had looked at several options for setting up an IXP and talked with the Internet Society, EuroIX and Leeds Internet Exchange about what was involved in setting up an exchange.  When talking with LINX I learned a lot about how a not-for-profit, and member run, IXP works and also became aware of their UK peering initiative. LINX are keen to reduce the reliance on London as the centre for all UK traffic and are actively looking at setting up other discrete IXPs across the UK.

This allowed us in the Scottish Government to work with LINX to accelerate this initiative in Scotland by supporting and co-ordinating the Scottish end of the partnership and supporting an initial public meeting.

The meeting explained what IXScotland could do, helped LINX members and others understand what facilities exist in Scotland and gauged everyone’s appetite to set-up an IXP.  All the details of that meeting including video clips and presentations are available online at the Scotland’s Digital Dialogue web site.

A follow up meeting has already been scheduled with the main intention of existing and new members agreeing to connect to IXScotland.  After all, an IXP will not work with no members (ISPs and content providers) connected!  If we can follow up on the enthusiasm and energy of the first meeting we should be well on our way to having the first Internet Exchange in Scotland.

April 17, 2013
by David Barnes
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A model event

Phew!  It’s 5pm and the last of the attendees at our conference on modelling future direct payments have left.

There were times in the run-up when I wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew.  The subject matter was all about how to divide Scotland into payment regions under the new CAP.  We wanted to model a long list of potential scenarios, to look at the results before narrowing down the list and adding in other elements like coupled support, greening etc.  But was it over-ambitious to try and use a big stakeholder conference to help us with the task of narrowing the list of 30-odd scenarios?

In fact today went brilliantly.  The data is massively complex, but everyone I spoke to welcomed the fact that we’d put it on the table, and complimented our speakers on how clearly they put it across.

We even got a bit of consensus in the breakout sessions in the afternoon.  And of course the whole thing was kicked off by a speech from the Cabinet Secretary in which he shared some of his own thinking on various important aspects of the new CAP.

As always, that speech plus the conference material will be on the website, and any comments are very welcome.

April 8, 2013
by sfraser
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The Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference 2013

Submitted by Jenny Wright

The University of Aberdeen and Marine Scotland Science recently organised the 9th UK Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference (YCSEC), with two of our oceanographers, Rory O’Hara Murray and Bee Berx, on the local organising committee. The conference was held at the University’s Fraser-Noble Building on March 25th and 26th 2013.  Scientists and engineers came from across the UK to present results from their PhD-studies, post-doctoral work, or their research within governmental organisations and private companies. The conference started off with a great key-note lecture by Prof. Peter Thorne, from the National Oceanography Centre,Liverpool, on his work on sediment transport processes and the application of acoustic measurement techniques. This was followed by a number of oral presentations ranging in topic from the influence of structure shape on scour patterns to numerical modelling of larval connectivity to the tidal energy budget for the Pentland Firth. During the poster session on the first day, presenters had the opportunity to attract the audience to their poster by a 1-minute introduction on a soap-box.

It was a great conference for all involved, with early-career coastal scientists and engineers having the opportunity to share their research and network. 

All attendants at YCSEC 2013

From the Oceanography Group, both Berit Rabe and I presented at the conference. Berit gave an oral presentation on the study of circulation and sea lice distribution in Loch Linnhe (the outcomes of an on-going multi-disciplinary study in the Aquaculture and Fish Health Science Programme) and I presented a poster on the long-term monitoring data from our coastal locations with co-authors Sarah Hughes, Bee Berx and Matt Geldart. The poster focussed on the long-term trends that we observe in the time series and the information that this data could reveal to us.

 

Location of coastal monitoring stations. The stations labelled in bold font are our longest time series. Millport dates back to 1909, Fair Isle dates back to 1979 and Peterhead dates back to 1977.

Temperature has been measured at the coastal monitoring stations for many years, with the oldest record dating back to 1909 in Millport. Since the dataset began in Millport we can see an overall increase in surface temperatures, but the question remains – why are these coastal waters warming? Is it due to atmospheric temperature increases? Or is there a change in the waters flowing into the area? The answers to these questions are still to be worked out.

Heat can be gained and lost from the seas through either vertical (incoming solar radiation, energy radiated back from the ocean, heat loss by evaporation or heat exchange by conduction across the air-sea interface) or horizontal heat transfer (through advection in currents).

In any given location the balance between these vertical and horizontal fluxes produces a net heat flux – whereby there is either net heat gain into, or net heat loss from the seas. Despite daily and seasonal changes in the heat fluxes, on average there should be a heat balance. Therefore when we can see changes that are occurring in the sea surface temperature at our coastal stations we can begin to think about how these changes are connected with changes in atmospheric and oceanographic conditions. A lot more work is required before we can fully understand these connections.

I was delighted that during the closing remarks of the conference my poster was awarded the ‘Best Poster’ prize.