27 Mar 2024
College leaders say the Inverness facility, which has been opened by the Princess Royal, will also play a key role in educating some of the country’s future vets.
Allister Webb
Job Title
A new research hub that aims to encourage collaboration on current and future threats to animal and human health has been opened by the Princess Royal.
Officials say the £12.5 million Rural and Veterinary Innovation Centre (RAVIC) on the Scotland’s Rural College Inverness campus will enable academics and businesses to develop solutions for emerging global threats.
College chief executive Wayne Powell said the facility will also play a key role with its new vet school, which hopes to welcome its first degree students this autumn.
Prof Powell said: “By leading planetary health innovation in Scotland, we can address global challenges in human and animal health, agriculture and aquaculture.
“Not only will the world-class facilities, equipment and human capital at RAVIC help to deliver new technologies, products and services essential to growing Scotland’s blue and green economies, but they will play a key role in making our new School of Veterinary Medicine a jewel in the country’s tertiary education crown.”
The new centre also aims to forge closer links between science and industry in work to address issues such as climate change, avian influenza and antimicrobial resistance.
Tenant companies will be able to access laboratories, meeting rooms and a lecture theatre on the site.
RAVIC director George Gunn said: “Supporting new start, spinout and inward investment opportunities, RAVIC will be at the centre of creating and sustaining rural jobs and recruitment across key sectors, and it will strengthen links between education and entrepreneurship throughout rural industries across Scotland.”
