Landmark centre will bring new jobs boost
Environment hub backed
Scotland’s newly-approved International Environment Centre in Forth Valley is expected to create more than 125 jobs locally - and inspire global change.
The full business case for the £52million landmark project was presented to members of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal Joint Committee last week, where it received unanimous support from all parties.
The project will create an “innovation community” in Forth Valley to drive the creation of a net zero regional economy - but is also expect to lead the way globally.
SIEC, to be based in Alloa, is one of the deal’s 14 core projects and is led by the University of Stirling in partnership with Clackmannanshire Council and Forth Valley College.
The SIEC will receive up to £22million from the Scottish and UK Governments through the deal over phase one and two, and is expected to leverage a further £30m, creating a total project value of £52m.
Phase one will draw down £9.7million of Government funding and £300,000 from Clackmannanshire Council.
Dr John Rogers, executive director of research and innovation services at the University of Stirling, said: “SIEC will play a major role in leading the response to the global climate emergency. Founded on outstanding environmental science at the University of Stirling, it will deliver high value jobs and opportunities in our communities while protecting and enhancing the value of our natural resources.”
In a report presented to the joint committee last week, council officials said: “SIEC will bring together external partners from industry, academic researchers, the SME community, government, regulators and regional stakeholders including communities and those in the third sector. It will work alongside stakeholders in order to better understand their climate and environmental-related challenges.
“It will co-develop new and innovative products and services that offer solutions to help tackle and mitigate the inevitable impacts of climate change, support the transition to a net zero economy and protect our natural environmental assets.
“The benefits to be delivered through SIEC phase one include the creation of 125 jobs within the city region; delivering an SIEC skills portfolio supporting 8,805 individuals; providing skills and training opportunities targeting underrepresented groups in the city region supporting 4403 women and 1799 people with a disability; and providing 948 inspiring opportunities or employability, school, college and university students to engage with industry on their journey to employment.
Other benefits are said to include developing 100 industry led partnerships; working with 300 SMEs by providing specialist ‘low carbon’ business support; supporting 100 start-ups in the low carbon economy; supporting 300 organisations in the city region to reduce their net carbon emissions; and contributing an additional £120.7million to the city region economy.
The 125 FTE jobs to be created are said to be “higher value” with target sectors of architectural and engineering services, technical testing and analysis services, scientific research and development and education services (including technical and vocational secondary education and higher education).
However, the officials added: “The skills pathway plan to be developed for SIEC as part of the wider Deal Skills and Inclusion programme is being designed to ensure jobs created are accessible and available to people living within the city region.
“The jobs will be long term, since they will be created largely through partnership working with businesses and other employing organisations, and in the university’s research and innovation programme.”
Speaking after the meeting, Stirling Council leader, Councillor Scott Farmer said: “This represents a major milestone in our journey to delivering this deal for the people of this region. I want to thank everyone involved in getting us to this stage.”
Clackmannanshire Council leader, Councillor Ellen Forson, said the news was “great to see” ahead of UN Climate Change conference - COP26 - in Glasgow at the end of October.
She added: “SIEC will play a crucial role in delivering the new technologies we will need to meet our net zero ambitions. I look forward to moving on to the next stage which will start to benefit our local region and economy.”
The Stirling & Clackmannanshire City Region Deal is a £90.2million investment from the UK Government and Scottish Government in innovation and infrastructure. Alongside this joint Government investment, regional partners, including Stirling Council, Clackmannanshire Council and the University of Stirling will invest up to £123.8 million, resulting in a deal worth in excess of £214 million.
This represents a major milestone...