Scientists from the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences and from the School of Chemistry will be partners in a new Scottish NMR facility that has received a £1.4 million investment from the UK government.

UofG is also investing £80,000 in upgrading its our NMR equipment.

The funding will enable an upgrade of the highest field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer in Scotland, based at the University of Edinburgh, and the highest field NMR spectrometer in Glasgow ensuring the availability of this leading edge technology used to study materials and molecular structures.

NMR is a key technique used widely in science, from materials chemistry to medicine and the new Scottish centre will provide a focal point for NMR research and industry engagement.

Scottish centre

The new facility – called the Scottish High Field NMR Centre – will bring together researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University and the Beatson CRUK Institute, Glasgow.

It will build on the existing Scottish NMR Users Group network, and draw on support from the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) and ScotCHEM.

UK investment

The announcement was made as part of a £20m UK-wide investment in NMR infrastructure by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Medical Research Council and Natural Environment Research Council also contributed to the funding.

Dr Brian Smith, Lecturer in Biomolecular NMR, said: “Being part of the new Scottish centre will help us use NMR to solve more challenges in biology, chemistry, environmental and material sciences in universities and industry across Scotland. The investmentment in our own equipment will allow us to play our full part in this. The £20 million from RCUK to the network of regional and national NMR

First published: 15 May 2018

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