Funding go-ahead for start of SAMS Marine Science Park at Dunstaffnage

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) as taken a lead role in the establishment of a Marine Science Park at Dunstaffnage, outside Oban. This important development – which will focus on Life Sciences – is built on the international reputation for research and support for linked commercial development which the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences campus there has earned through its work.

HIE is giving the initiative £4.5 million from its own development budget; and has secured the remaining £3 million of the approved cost of Phase 1 of the project from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Outline planning consent was acquired in 2009 and HIE is shortly to submit detailed plans to Argyll and Bute Council’s planners. It is hoped that work may start as early as October 2010, if the plans are approved at the scheduled September meeting.

This first phase will see a typical co-location of research and commercial development, with a laboratory and office suite alongside three marine science businesses. These are estimated to support support 119 jobs with the investment in this pahse then working out at just over 63,,000 per job. The eventual job creation total for the complete project is estimated at 270.

This is the sort of development of position in a cutting edge area of science that Scotland needs to see – both in research and in an energetic embedding of research in commercial follow-through.

SAMS is an insufficiently sung jewel in the crown of Argyll, sited in a region with rich marine biodiversity alongside a variety of challenges to that environment. The international respect accorded SAMS for its work in a variety of fields – and including ‘soundscaping;’ on marine mammals in relation to coming developments in marine turbine installations – is well deserved.

This project will lift SAMS and Argyll even higher in worldwide recognition sand the Marine Science Park promises, through knowledge transfer, the potential for sustainability in the provision of high net worth and skilled employment in Argyll.

Coupled with the engineering and technological challenges in the development work of Skykon at Machrihanish in Kintyre, the spectrum of employment available in Argyll is looking healthier, more entrepreneurial, more sharply contemporary and better focused on keeping pace with the future than it has ever been.

Ministerial welcome

The Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism and Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather is delighted at the news.

He says: ‘I am very pleased to see confirmation that further progress has been made on this and that it is now on the brink of coming to fruition.

‘The success of the SAMS operation at Dunstaffnage has given the area an enviable reputation for marine research and the development of the Marine Science Park on their doorstep will mean that they will be able to maintain that link with expanded facilities close at hand’.

The Life Sciences sector brought over £130m to the Highlands and Islands economy in 2008-09. It accounts for around 50 businesses in the region. This is a key sector for growth outlined in the Scottish Government Economic Strategy.

HIE is  working to strengthen and develop the cluster of such  businesses in Argyll and the Dunstaffnage Marine Science Park is one of a number of  linked projects – together known as  the Argyll Marine Science Initiative (AMSI), born from SAMS’s renown.

Other projects  will include additional teaching infrastructure at SAMS and the creation and implementation of the Dunbeg Master plan. This is a partnership project  led by West Highland Housing Association and aiming to bring to fruition the new infrastructure to which the Argyll & Bute Local Plan aspires.

The Dunstaffnage Marine Science Park will sit on a 6.5acre site adjacent to SAMS and the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology.