Recent Grants Made by The Trust

The Trustees have fairly wide discretion as to the awards they can make and over the years have provided support to a range of applicants. Awards to date have been made to variety of organisations including Universities, Research institutes, Agricultural colleges, Schools, Charities, Young Farmers Clubs and Farmers Organisations. Grants have been awarded to applicants all across Scotland from Aberdeen to Argyll, Dundee to Dumfries, Stirling to Shetland, Edinburgh to Orkney and many places in between.

Awards made which have facilitated education of agricultural practises and farming at Scottish Schools, Collages or Universities:

• An award to Royal Northern Countryside Initiative (RNCI) for funding towards the Farming and Estate Days organised by the RNCI for school children at various locations in the North-east of Scotland. Funds also made available to RNCI to assist with the costs of their project manager.

• An award to Dundee & Angus College for a project whose aim was to encourage primary and secondary school pupils to consider agriculture as a career opportunity.

• Award to the University of Aberdeen Development Trust for the “soil, plants and produce” project for Aberdeen Schools.

• An award to the Royal Highland Education Trust, to cover the costs of farm visits by schools and of classroom speakers.

• An award to an Aberdeen Primary School for funding for a school project looking at bees and raspberry growing.

• An award to the University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute, for a visit by pupils from a local Secondary School to the Institute with a view of engaging children in the practice and science of agriculture.

• PhD Studentships: while the Trustees will only exceptionally fund PhD studentships, they have funded two PhD studentships where the research project has been tied to improving schoolchildren’s understanding of farming. One project researched how best primary school visits to farms could improve children’s understanding of the food chain and land use; and the second project extended this to secondary schools.

• Grants to SASA as a contribution towards the reagents and materials required to support a student placement in the molecular biology laboratories at SASA, where the student would experience work on developing solutions to practical problems encountered by farmers; In 2012, the award was for work involved developing a real-time pcr assay to aid the identification and quantification of aphid species found in Scotland; in 2013 for work relating to finding a viable control option for soil borne pests and diseases of potato crops, in the absence of conventional agrochemicals; and in 2015 for work in gaining an understanding of the bio-fumigation process, in particular in controlling a range of soil-borne blemish diseases of the potato.

• Awards to SAC(Aberdeen) in order to enable the provision of student placements in the farming industry, for students continuing on to study for an Honours Degree.

• Awards to the University of Aberdeen School of Biological Sciences for farm visits for students attending the Level 3 course (“Animals in captivity”) to provide an overview of production and husbandry of animals bred for food in Scotland.

• Application by the University of Highland & Islands Development Trust – for bursaries for up to 5 HNC

• An award to ANM Group Limited, on behalf of the Taste of Grampian Food Festival, towards the purchase of equipment and banners for the children’s education tent.

Awards which have funded research in an aspect of agriculture:

• Award to SAC (Edinburgh), to carry out research in Scotland on the varieties of cereals best suited to the Scotland where harvests can be as late as October or November.

• An award to University of Aberdeen Development Trust to cover the costs associated with a summer student project on infectious bovine rhinotracheitis.

• An award to SRUC (Edinburgh) over two growing years (and three financial years) to carry out field trials on wheat and spring barley to examine issues of product choice and timing from ear emergence to grain ripening with a view to managing ear diseases in cereal crops following high rainfall, with a view to developing specific KT messages applicable to growers in the North East of Scotland.

• While the Trustees will only exceptionally fund PhD studentships, they have contributed towards the cost of a PhD studentship on livestock disease systems.at BioSS (Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland)

• A grant to SRUC (Edinburgh) and James Hutton Institute, to fund a joint project to develop a “local rule of thumb” to assess soil quality

• An Award to the University of Highland & Islands – to assist Orkney College with the knowledge transfer for new cereals development to Shetland.

• Award to Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust in relation to a 3 year research project on the grey partridge etc. With the partridge being a key indicator species for the health of the countryside, the research work of this project should have direct application in the practice of farming, through providing guidance to farmers as to what they can do to enhance biodiversity and thus improve the environment and the image of Scottish agriculture as a whole.

The Trustees have also used their discretion to provide funding to support skills events targeted at students studying an aspect of farming at Scottish colleges or universities. For example:

• An award to SAC (Edinburgh) towards the Mains of Loirston Challenge Prize, being a team competition to achieve the maximum margin per hectare for winter wheat.

• Awards to SAC (Aberdeen) to support their student “Engineering Club”.

• An award to SRUC Dairy Research Centre in Dumfries to establish an online facility which would give students access to a virtual dairy farm.

• An award to the Scottish Association of Young Farmers for funding for their Communication & Rural Affairs Manager.

• An award to the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs, for their funding towards their Leadership Programme.

• Awards to both SAC (Aberdeen) and the University of Highland & Islands Development Trust for funding for a second hand tractor for training of their agricultural students in the use and handling of tractors.