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Research leaders from Heriot-Watt and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) met at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in the first of a series of Exchange Events, organised by the University's Centre for Academic Leadership and Development.
Building even closer connections with scientists from SNBTS will undoubtedly create exciting new opportunities for research exploitation and application in medical and other fields.
The Exchange Event aimed to support and stimulate the emerging interdisciplinary discovery programme between the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering (IB3) at Heriot-Watt and the Advanced Therapeutics directorate of the SNBTS. They span disciplines including super resolution microscopy, micro- engineering, bio-fabrication, microfluidics, optics, tissue and cell biology, microbiology, immunology and medicine. It was also attended by a range of senior representatives from the University and from the SUPA and SULSA Research Pools.
A set of pilot collaborative projects will be selected for funding following the Exchange Event, enabled through sponsorship by the RS MacDonald Charitable Trust. Further research collaborations are expected to be facilitated following the relocation of the SNBTS headquarters to the Heriot-Watt Research Park in Edinburgh later in the year.
Professor Rory Duncan, Head of IB3, said, “The co-location of a cohort of leading-edge cell therapy experts from SNBTS with technologists and biophysicists from Heriot-Watt presents a compelling opportunity for new collaborations and this event brought to the fore a number of exciting opportunities that we are looking forward to developing between us.”
Research and buisness expertise
Dr Gill Murray, Deputy Principal (Enterprise and Business) spoke of the growing potential for the research collaboration. “Heriot-Watt University is internationally renowned for its research and business expertise. Building even closer connections with scientists from SNBTS will undoubtedly create exciting new opportunities for research exploitation and application in medical and other fields. We welcome SNBTS to our research park; having leading organisations located within our campus is a fantastic opportunity for collaboration.”
Mrs Mary Morgan (Director of SNBTS), said, "The partnership between SNBTS and Heriot-Watt comes at a very exciting time for our Service. We will soon be moving into our new purpose-built headquarters which has been specially designed with state of the art research facilities, where our Advanced Therapeutics directorate will be based. The collaboration with IB3 is a great opportunity for both organisations and we look forward to what the future holds."