The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘Tunnel of knowledge’ to farms
PROFESSOR BOB WEBB, now seven weeks into his new role as chief executive and principal of SAC, has a vision of a “tunnel of knowledge” to take research directly to farmers.
This will be delivered through both the consultants in the field and the provision of formal education.
“SAC is pretty unique in having the strands of research, education and consultancy so closely interlinked,” he told agricultural journalists yesterday.
His background is firmly rooted in research and from his comments it is clear that he sees this as the start of the process.
An animal scientist with a distinguished career, including a 16-year spell at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, he was latterly Pro Vice Chancellor for research at Nottingham University.
With an annual budget at SAC of £55 million including £14.3 million of government funding, Professor Webb is in a position to initiate research programmes of global significance but in the short term his focus may well perforce be more on the delivery of education.
The consultation on the merger of Elmwood, Oatridge and Barony — Scotland’s three land-based colleges — and SAC has now closed but this is obviously only the precursor to some intensive negotiations.
Following the journalists’ briefing yesterday, Professor Webb was off hotfoot to meet education secretary Mike Russell and the principals of the other three colleges.
The vesting date for the proposed new college is on August 1 so the schedule is tight, to say the least.
“No final decisions have been made yet and this is still very much a work in progress but we at SAC are very much wedded to the vision (of a merged college),” he said.
“SAC is a higher education institute with a significant amount of further education provision. In conjunction with the other colleges I can see the emergence of a whole range of delivery mechanisms for education and consultancy.”
The themes of collaboration and delivery also extended into the relationship between SAC, the James Hutton Institute and the Moredun Institute.
Professor Webb has already met his counterparts at JHI and Moredun and sees the roles of the three organisations as being complementary.
“But any collaboration has to be mutually beneficial,” he said. “The important thing is to create an environment which helps staff develop opportunities.”
He did not rule out further expansion of consultancy services into England and Wales but acknowledged SAC was operating in a competitive marketplace.