Aberdeen and the North East

Latest news from Aberdeen and the North East

As the grouse shooting season gets under way, two scientists involved in high-profile studies of hen harriers and red grouse at Langholm Moor in Scotland have called for field trials of a 'ceiling' on harrier numbers in an attempt to end the long running conflict between conservationists and grouse managers. Anyone studying the approach of large area wildlife conservation will know that predators and prey need careful 'ceiling' monitoring so an equilibrium can be achieved. The same should hopefully prove viable for Scotland's grouse moors.

A computer-based vision restoration therapy for stroke victims who have suffered partial vision loss has been developed by researchers at the University of Aberdeen who have designed an interactive program that can help sufferers of partial vision loss (hemianopia), caused by damage to the brain's visual pathways after a stroke.

Aberdeen motorists could soon be fined £80 for driving in bus lanes as the city council prepares for a major crackdown. Plans have been put forward by Aberdeen City Council officers which could treble the number of drivers fined per month for being caught by roadside cameras. The authority wants to take control of the system from police to make it easier for buses to get around the city. It is estimated this will see a rise in people caught from 420 offences per month recorded by police, to 1,300. An unpublished report to be considered by various Aberdeen City Council committees over the coming weeks suggests scheme could be started on the auspicious date of April 1.

A leading fungi expert has accidentally stumbled upon a new species in Aberdeen – as he walked home from work. Dr Andy Taylor, from Aberdeen’s Macaulay Institute, noticed the Xerocomus bubalinus growing near a lime tree in the city’s Albyn Place. This very rare fungus was only described for the first time in 1991 in the Netherlands, and has not previously been recorded before in Scotland.

ILX Group plc, the training services company, is launching a public training programme teaching PRINCE2 and ITIL courses to ILX clients in the North East and Scotland. The programme, due to begin in August 2008 and offers organisations with high quality, cost effective training. The training is offered via a variety of learning options, including e-learning only, blended and pure classroom.

Braveheart, the technology commercialisation and investment management company has signed an agreement with the University of Aberdeen. it follows hot on the heels of the Perth based investment company tie-up with Edinburgh University in June 2007 creating a dedicated £25m fund having rights of first refusal to invest in all commercial investment opportunities that arise in respect of companies and intellectual property emanating from the university, other than in the field of medicine, veterinary medicine and life sciences, where it may take a co-investment position. In February 2007 a £12m funding deal for the Strathclyde Innovation Fund partnership with Strathclyde University shared 25% of its performance bonus with the university. In addition, when an investment is made, a payment will be made to the department which has sponsored the investment opportunity, encouraging university departments to participate in the commercialisation partnership.

In the British Small Business Champions Awards software design experts Aberdeen based C-SAM Ltd have reached the Scottish finals. The company now battles it out next week for a place in the national finals in London and if successful will join five other UK area champions to contest the Â£10,000 first prize.

The Royal Northern Countryside Initiative has had the livewire idea to invite fifth and sixth year pupils from 10 schools in Moray and Aberdeenshire to a day on the farm showing them an insight into
links between science, agriculture and the countryside. It's an approach that manufacturing and business would do well to consider an emulate if Scotland is to attract its young into the science and technology side of work.

A detailed study that examines options for regenerating the Cabrach in Moray, Strathspey is to be launched this week by Richard Lochhead MSP. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) commissioned Nick Brown Associates earlier this year to carry out a healthcheck of the area's economy and community. The Cabrach Baseline Study was be launched at Horizon Scotland, Enterprise Park Forres in early June. Meantime the Culbin sands shapes up to visitors and counting the cost of ICT for councillors in Moray

Professor John Baillie, Chair of the Accounts Commission for Scotland, said: â€œAberdeen City Council has extremely serious problems with its management, governance and finances as well as the effective delivery of major services such as social work. It is essential that the council accepts the seriousness of its circumstances, pulls together and acts quickly and decisively to implement our recommendations. It will need specialist support from outside the council to do this. There are many challenges ahead but we hope to see changes soon that will help the council to achieve its Best Value duties for people in Aberdeen.â€

Aberdeen City leaders have been at the centre of controversy over spending plans that will result in them cutting Â£27m from budgets. Spending watchdog the Accounts Commission for Scotland launched an inquiry mid May over concerns raised in the city council's recent Best Value Audit and Community Planning Report.Its purpose was to assess how well the local authority was performing and what improvements had been made, but instead it identified "serious weaknesses in governance and accountability".

Turiff-based Innovent Technology, with less than four years of trading, has been shortlisted in the highly prestigious Grampian 2008 Business Awards is one of only five companies selected from outside Aberdeen city in the 18 total nominees (two from Turiff, one each from Braemar, Ellon and Fraserburgh) It's products QBox and qScan have been making quite an impact in farming circles within and without borders with its qBox monitor for web beef, sheep, dairy and pig producer benchmarking and slaughter analysis system. And its Qscan analysis allows for on line real-time video monitoring of livestock.

A team from the Robert Gordon University, Scotland, UK, Friday visited the RIMTâ€“Institute of Management and Computer Technology(IMCT), Mandi Gobindgarh led by the dean of the university, Dr. Robert Newton. The university was in the campus at an event to congratulate the ten students of MBA 2005-07 batch, who secured top positions in their respectives specialist fields

Lilley & Gillie, the long-established nautical chart supplier and navigational equipment manufacturer, has recently been awarded a contract by SELEX Communications, a Finmeccanica company, to provide PC Maritime Navmaster ECDIS systems for installation aboard three field support vessels now being built by Astilleros Zamakona in Bilbao, Spain, for Vroon Offshore Services Ltd (VOS).

The Anglo-Dutch IT services company, and Europe second largest computer services group, Logica was unable to rule out Scottish jobs cuts after announcing that a Ã‚Â£110m restructuring programme will result in 1,300 staff losing their jobs. Logica, won the Scottish Parliament IT contract last year. It employs staff in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. It has been suggested that 500 jobs will be lost in the UK although a company spokesperson was unable to confirm which of Logica's 30 UK offices would be affected.

Aviation history was made today when a Super Puma helicopter operated by Bristow Eastern Hemisphere departed from Aberdeen Airport this morning to various Shell installations in the East Shetland Basin with a Rockwell Collinsâ€™ Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II) operational. This the first time that a helicopter has gained operational approval for use of TCAS II equipment to provide the same level of enhanced safety that TCAS II normally provides to fixed wing aircraft.

Leading energy consultancy Bath-based Senergy with offices in Aberdeen, Banchory, London, Guildford, Kuala Lumpur, Stavanger and Abu Dhabi has made its second acquisition of 2008 by joining forces with ISIS Energy Limited (ISIS). The Aberdeen and Bath based marine geotechnology and engineering consultancy was formed in 2005 and has rapidly established a track record of delivering high quality solutions across all aspects of marine geotechnology.

The Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB )convention is an annual event organised as a number of collocated symposia loosely organised around a theme, and interspersed with invited plenary talks and poster sessions. The theme for the 2008 convention is "Communication, Interaction and Social Intelligence".

A scheme involving student playing Nintendo DS for 20 minutes before school is now be widened to 16 schools in the Western Isles, Dundee, East Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire, where students will take part in another 10 week trial, observed by Her Majestyâ€™s Inspectorate of Education and researchers at the University of Dundee.

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