Water Words

Working with Scotland’s water sector and water users such as the farming sector, school children and teachers, we have designed this informative, engaging and fun series of educational posters on the important topic of water. We hope that by communicating a clear message about water, and explaining the very words used to best describe it and its many links to human life, young people and the general public will be better able to respond with real solutions in the places they live and work.

Centres of Expertise: Delivering Evidence Directly to Policy

The CoEs, funded by the Scottish Government, work directly at the interface between policy and research, providing responsive outputs and outcomes in areas of high policy importance: climate change, animal disease outbreaks, plant health, water and knowledge exchange and impact. The Centres draw upon the wide range of up-to-date research expertise within the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes (SEFARI), universities, colleges, government agencies and research organisations across Scotland. 

Here, queer and looking to volunteer – tales of an early-career climate enthusiast

When first starting out in the ecology and conservation space in 2019, I was concerned about a lack of representation of women, people of colour, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. I felt so far removed from the decision makers, and as though there were several barriers to my success in this field. But it turns out that I just wasn’t looking in the right places.

A Virtual Tour around Scotland’s Innovative Climate Research

Designed by an interdisciplinary team of scientific experts, and funded by SEFARI Gateway’s Responsive Opportunity Fund, our Google earth tours feature climate research from across SEFARI’s consortium of globally renowned institutes, namely Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), the James Hutton Institute, Moredun Research Institute, the Rowett Institute, Royal Botanic Garden E

Environmental Science Education Resources for Secondary Schools – freely accessible

After an introduction by Annie McRobbie (SSERC) the event began with Lee Innes (Moredun Research Institute) outlining resources covering a range of different topics relating to infectious diseases, immunology, diagnostics, vaccination, parasitology, biodiversity, climate change, food security and food safety. Moredun have developed several different educational resources and activities for secondary (and primary) school children working in collaboration with teachers and colleagues at SSERC.

Exploring the Twitterverse – What can we learn about engaging with farmers on social media?

New research, involving a partnership across the Portfolio between Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), SEFARI Gateway and the Plant Health Centre, has been examining a tale as old as agriculture – how farmers discuss farming. Farmers are quite a sociable group, often discussing on-farm practices with friends and colleagues who are farmers and/or those who engage in some aspect of agriculture.

WaterWall in Motion - A competition to share your water-related videos

We’re eager to create a collective resource showing how we enjoy, monitor, research, innovate, manage and conserve our water resources. This is your opportunity to submit a short video as part of a competition. By getting involved we can highlight how Scotland, as a Hydro Nation, is leading the way in water-inspired activities, research, technology and management.

3D RNA-seq App improves large scale experimental data analysis – tools and training

High throughput sequencing is a powerful tool used to rapidly obtain information about nucleic acids and this can increase our understanding of the biology of a cell and assess changes that may indicate disease. Researchers use the capabilities of high throughput sequencing to survey, characterize, and quantify gene expression in a biological sample (RNA-Seq).