Knowledge exchange leads to success
Above: The University research team at Baltic Street Adventure Playground
We had great success at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards in February, winning three of the six awards.
Making a difference
The Making a Difference award is given to a collaborative business-academic project that has produced significant social or environmental impacts which ultimately contribute towards a better, fairer and more sustainable future.
Baltic Street Adventure Playground is a Glasgow charity and child-led supervised adventure playground, that is partnering with our Adam Smith Business School to develop a community food hub in Dalmarnock, a neighbourhood that ranks in the top 5% highest rate of deprivation in Scotland. The collaboration, which is supported by Stage 2 Scottish Government/EU Social Innovation Funding, supported and evaluated community food activities.
Innovator of the future
This award is given to a student who has been hosted or sponsored by a business in conjunction with a Scottish university, research institute or college.
Connor Blair is undertaking an Industrial Placement PhD with Portage Glasgow Ltd, a biotechnology start-up company, focusing on the discovery and development of novel cell-penetrating peptide therapeutics. Connor’s research has already led to two patents and he has been promoted to the role of Principal Scientist.
Multiparty Collaboration
This award is given to groups and consortia including business and academic partners who are working together on an innovative research project.
The nEUROSTRESSPEP project, led by the University, has championed a revolution in the creation of novel next generation green insecticides. The €7M initiative brings together seven universities across Europe and South Africa, six agricultural technology governmental agencies and three highly innovative companies. The multiparty collaboration will bring eco-friendly alternative pest control a step closer to reality, leading to the creation of a new Scottish, specialist environmentally friendly insecticides company – the first of its kind in the UK.
This article was first published March 2020.
The Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards celebrate the local and global impacts achieved for society and the economy through R&D partnership and knowledge sharing between businesses, colleges, universities and research institutes.