Photo of university representatives at Scottish Parliament

We had the opportunity to visit The Scottish Parliament today as part of a Universities Scotland reception showcasing the economic impact of universities. 

A drinks reception was hosted by Universities Scotland to highlight universities’ contribution to economic transformation as framed through the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). The event took place in the evening of January 30th, 2023 in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament. The event will kick-start a bigger project, on the theme of economic transformation, planned to run throughout 2023.

The following speeches took place:
1) Willie Rennie MSP provided a welcome to the event, as event sponsor
2) Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, as the Convener of Universities Scotland, outlined the purpose of the event
3) Shirley-Anne Somerville delivered the keynote speech

The event aimed to tell a set of 19 (one per HEI) stories of economic transformation in our nation, which touch on one or more of the five over-arching “programmes of action” or themes in the NSET:

  • Entrepreneurial people and culture
  • New market opportunities
  • Productive businesses and regions
  • Skilled workforce
  • A fairer and more equal society (which we think offers scope for stories of access)

The case study submitted to represent the University of Dundee was the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD) – as a new translational research centre that will support the development of new treatments based on fundamental research. CeTPD’s research pioneers a new drug type that has allowed previously believed to be untreatable conditions to be medicated, and has stimulated over $3.5 billion of investment in the global targeted protein degradation sector. Learn more: https://buff.ly/3HOgvLT

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